Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Health) Share this | Hansard source

Let me just say to the member for McMahon: if you want a focus on just a narrow strand of need for senior Australians, then you are not doing your job of responding to the needs of constituents in your electorate who are senior Australians, who need to be looked after. That's why you turned your back on them.

We have provided an additional $662 million to add to the work that we are doing for senior Australians, and just recently. in MYEFO. we announced $552 million. Importantly, I want to refer to a comment made by the member for Franklin in the chamber last night about a $2 billion cut. What's interesting is that ABC Fact Check challenged that and said it was wrong—that it was a false claim.

We are continuing to reform the aged-care sector to meet the needs of senior Australians. In addition, we are focusing on many other aspects of encouraging Australians living to 100 years old to have a quality of life—that is absolutely important—and we are looking after those people, who are our mothers and fathers, our uncles and aunts, who are in aged care who need this level of support and intervention.

What will be interesting about the royal commission is this: to find the truth, the scalpel of candour has to cut deep. That royal commission will look at the Productivity Commission report, and look at the elements that were addressed and those that were ignored. It was a program of reform by the member for Port Adelaide, and there are many elements that were positive, but there are many aspects that go to the quality of life of senior Australians that were not addressed by the government of the day in that period. So we're doing the work that is required, because we have a strong economy and that strong economy gives us the an opportunity to find the funding that is needed to provide for the needs of senior Australians. And we will continue to do that. The health checks that we are putting in place for healthy ageing will enable senior Australians to check their health and to look at their career pathway, and, if they wish to make a change, they can make that change. It'll also give them the opportunity to look at their financial planning, their financial needs, for both retirement and aged care.

All of us in this chamber, including those on the other side, I know, are committed to looking after senior Australians. This is about a bipartisan approach to making sure that the people who gave us everything that we take for granted have the opportunity to enjoy their final years of living and spending time with their family.

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