Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

It's quite simple: In the 2016-17 budget, funding for aged care was $17.1 billion. It is increased on average by 6.2 per cent each year up to 2021. In 2017 alone, aged -care spending was estimated to reach $18.6 billion. For the benefit of the member for Sydney, $18.6 billion is higher than $17.1 billion. Over the next four years, it will grow by another $5 billion, to 23.6 billion.

What the member would know is that, when the Labor Party were in government, they also had issues with the estimation of potential demand in the aged-care sector and issues of compliance with allocating the funding and ensuring the funding was spent for the purposes for which it was intended—to recalibrate future growth projections upon which the services would be required. That is a standard budgeting function. It can be dealt with as an underspend in the estimates, as I would know as a former Treasurer, or you can take the decision in the budget and make sure the forward projections are accurate.

Aged-care funding has gone up by a billion dollars and more every year under this government. They're the facts. This is why I want a royal commission into this area. We should not be making decisions based on the political agendas of those opposite or in other places; we should be making decisions based on the facts. The Australian people know that the Labor Party do not tell the truth at elections about services provided to senior Australians.

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