Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I can hear opposition members mocking. Well, I make no apologies about this. We make sure that older Australians are safe, no matter where their nursing home is. We have increased the accreditation standards as well.

In the couple of minutes I have left, I will talk about how a lot of veterans are being left out under the opposition’s scheme. They have left so many people out, and I listed some of the problems before. The opposition claim that this measure includes 70,000 veterans, but the opposition’s definition means the figure is actually 35,000. So they have left out a heap of veterans as well. A huge number of people have been left out—two million people right across Australia.

The member for McPherson asked earlier about the rally that will be held in my electorate on Friday. I certainly will be there speaking about the very decisive action that the Rudd government has taken since it came into government after 12 years of nothing from the Liberal and National parties. Since we have been in government there has been very decisive action. We have increased the utilities allowance, the telephone allowance and the bonuses that are being paid, and we are having a comprehensive review of our pension system to get the whole process right.

The opposition left things in disarray. They did not care. They cobbled together this political quick fix. But a lot of people are very angry that that little fix left out two million people. They can see through it to what it is. We are committed to taking decisive action. We are committed to getting the system right. We are committed to making sure that we have in place comprehensive reform of our pension and taxation systems, and we are doing it for the long term. All we see from the opposition is this political quick fix approach to things. We are committed to the long term, to tackling the challenges of the 21st century, and one of those is making sure we get this right. (Time expired)

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