David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party, Assistant Minister for Children and Families) Share this | Hansard source

The other side always claim the moral high ground, and it's a classic case here. They are trying to claim the moral high ground regarding home-care support packages and aged care, and that is so far from the truth. As the member for Hasluck, Minister Wyatt, already outlined, we are delivering in spades. We inherited a mess. The My Aged Care portal has had to have another $20 million poured into it to correct its workings and make it function better. There have been reviews and there's been extra capacity added. We are now up to $5½ billion being spent on the home-care support package system out to 2020. That's a massive increase.

The whole aged-care budget is $18.6 billion over that same period, and $5½ billion of it is going into the home care support packages. We in the coalition know what our senior citizens have done in their life. The seats in parliament with the most elderly people are in fact Nationals seats. Today I looked up the figures from the department, and I claim the crown for the most senior citizens receiving support from the federal Commonwealth. In the Mid North Coast we have 122 aged-care providers, 4,264 people in residential care, 1,630 in home care and another 80 in transition. And as the minister and member for Hasluck outlined, we have added extra places in the last three years, 6,000 in the last two years and an extra 6½ thousand. We have supported putting extra money into multipurpose centres, which in rural Australia deliver aged-care services—$8½ million in January 2017 and another $3 million released by the good minister just in December 2015.

In my electorate, for instance, we're pouring money into expanding aged-care services. We have a $40 million project happening in Forster. We have Bundaleer, with a $30 million aged-care project, with $8½ million additional funding from the Commonwealth. In Gloucester there is an $18½ million project expanding aged care. We know that the seniors in Australia built the nation, and the veterans fought for our nation, and they deserve all the support they can get.

The review and the reforms to the system mean that the Commonwealth now has visibility on what these waiting lists are. There are 2½ thousand packages that go out every week, and on top of that we've added these extra bundles of 6,000, as my colleague and member for Hasluck has already said in his speech. So, that's greater capacity. There's a greater weighting towards package levels 3 and 4 rather than levels 1 and 2, And they are now in control of it, because they can get the providers they want rather than having the money go to the providers and back. It gives greater choice and greater control, and that is a very good principle.

What the good member for Hasluck has done has been excellent in this space, and I commend him for it. As I said earlier, we understand the pressures of aged care, because up on the north coast we have a lot of retirees who have built the nation, and in their retirement and twilight years they come up to the north coast, and we are delivering for them in spades. It's a massive increase in care. The same goes for Commonwealth home support packages. It is so much better to keep elderly people in their homes for as long as possible, rather than having them go straight into aged residential care. The average length of stay in residential care has shrunk considerably, because people are staying independent, with assistance in their own home. And we're not talking about it; we are delivering in spades with extra places, a better system, and more choice and control so that our seniors get the care that they want, they get control, and they get the funds directed to them. All of this means a better outcome. Anyone would think the other side— (Time expired)

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