Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to put on record my comments in relation to the member for Franklin's motion. I've said it here before and I'll say it again: we cannot trust the Turnbull government to deliver a pizza, let alone meaningful action for the more than 100,000 older Australians who are waiting for home care packages. You only have to look at this out-of-touch government's budget handed down last month to see that those opposite will never truly understand how to put the best interests of older Australians front and centre. Axing the energy supplement and making Australians work until they're 70 are a couple of the things on their hit list. This government has not allocated a single extra dollar for Australia's aged-care system in this year's budget. More than 14,000 age pensioners live in my electorate of Lindsay, and they deserve better than what this government is serving up. It is an absolute disgrace that the average wait time for high-level home-care packages will soar this year. It is an absolute disgrace that this government wants to take $550 a year from pensioners through their energy supplements. The Turnbull government has legislation coming through that will see older Australians having to work until they are 70 before they can get the age pension. It is an absolute disgrace that this government wants to take $1.3 billion from pensioners through concessions that help them with important things like dealing with the continuously rising costs of living—that will be going—while it gives $80 billion in corporate tax breaks to those who need it least.

This government is waging a war on older Australians. The shambles in access to aged-care home packages is symptomatic of this government's out-of-touch and problematic approach to our most vulnerable Australians. This government thinks that 3½ thousand places a year to deal with the increasing demand is enough. The government thinks that funding just 14,000 aged-care packages is enough to deal with a backlog that has already climbed to 200,000 in just six months. We are facing an aged-care crisis, and the Turnbull government can no longer ignore the problem by looking the other way. Older Australians deserve to be cared for and invested in. We need to do everything we can to ensure they are supported in the later years of their lives. Older Australians are some of the most vulnerable members of our communities and they cannot afford this government's inaction on the matter.

I call on the Minister for Aged Care to release the latest round of data on the wait list for home care packages and to be honest with us all and what we are really dealing with. We have already waited a fortnight, and older Australians have already waited that time as well. Frankly, we are sick of waiting. The government needs to be held to account and answer why there have been billions of dollars in funding cuts to the aged-care instrument and funding cuts to residential aged care. The government needs to be held to account for its blatant dishonesty by claiming to champion aged care and then turning around and defunding it. Not only did the government's budget not add up and underdeliver but it was also extremely dishonest and underhanded. The aged-care minister couldn't even guarantee older Australians that their circumstances would improve or that their voices are heard, stating:

It'll be the status quo for a short period of time and then we'll start to look at a range of other interventions that will reduce that list.

I ask him: when will that occur? The aged-care minister has simply resigned both himself and older Australians who are depending on home care packages to accept the status quo and vague promises of interventions, which the government has refused to outline thus far. The Turnbull-Abbott government, or the Turnbull government, or whoever is running the show on the other side these days, has slashed and has continued to cut billions of dollars from aged care and is responsible for the growing waiting lists for in-home care. How can this government justify funding $80 billion in tax cuts for the big end of town, including $17 billion for the big-bank fat cats, while stripping funding away from some of our most vulnerable Australians?

The aged-care budget—and we've analysed it—will hurt older Australians. The government has created the aged-care crisis, has continued to ignore the aged-care crisis and is putting our oldest Australians at risk. If the government fails to act, we will see not only the material impact on older Australians but also the mental impact on older Australians from the stress and anxiety that the government created with its failure to fix the crisis of its own making. The government has a proven track record of cutting funding and underinvesting in aged care. Only a Labor government will fight to make sure that older Australians get their fair share. Labor will give older Australians a fair go and will make sure they are supported and looked after in their later years. The Turnbull government needs to act and act now. It can no longer stick its head in the sand and ignore the aged-care crisis of their own making.

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