Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

We called this royal commission because of the tragedy, the scandal, that we saw in Oakden. We realised that there was an increasingly unacceptable level of evidence that that which had been in place over the course of some decades—this is reinforced by the findings of the royal commissioners in the interim report—was not at the standard we would want. We wanted to shine a light both on the past and towards the future. Those are the reasons why the commission was called.

I want to start by acknowledging and thanking the royal commissioners, Commissioner Briggs and the now past Commissioner Tracey, for their work so far. Commissioner Tracey wrote almost to his last days. He was determined to prepare and to complete his work in the course of the interim report. I spoke to him shortly after he was diagnosed with what was a terminal condition that was aggressive and was going to have a very fast-acting outcome on his advice to me. I said, 'Nothing is more important than your health.' He said, 'With respect, nothing is more important than the health of older Australians.' It was one of the most powerful moments I have had the privilege to be a part of in dealing with any public official in any role in Australia.

Having said that, the commissioners made strong, clear findings. They recognised, even on the first page of their report, that as a country we had decadal challenges across government, across providers and across the community. They pointed to 'a culture of ageism', in their own words, which we needed to address as a country. It's our watch and our time to do that. In particular, the commission set out three areas of primary responsibility for action now. They were, firstly, home care, and the ability to take further steps on that front; secondly, medication management, with regard to dementia and the abuse of that for chemical restraint; and, thirdly, the work that needs to be done to remove young people from aged care where they are inappropriately housed in aged care.

In relation to home care, we have accepted the advice of the commission that there is a moment in history where we can unify the home care and home support programs, and the government has committed to so doing. That is a fundamentally important step. It has been done so that we can tailor the treatment for individuals that best supports their needs, to provide the services and care which best reflect what they need. I thank the commissioners for their work in outlining that program. The commission report very specifically sets out that, in adding home care packages, care had to be given to making sure that there was an appropriate increase in workforce. The history here is that over the last 18 months the government has added 44,000 home care packages. The opposition added none. The opposition was given a chance at the election to add packages. I have here Labor's Fair Go budget plan. There is a section on ALP commitments on health and Medicare. Under Medicare, apart from the fact that they would end the freeze, they have zero, zero, zero, zero over four years. It was the same thing in relation to home care packages. There was $337 billion worth of taxes and not one home care place, at the very moment they were seeking to enter into government. This was after the royal commission had been called. How many home care packages did they add? Not one home care package.

To put all of this in context, we have increased the number of home care places from 60,000 under the previous government to 150,000 this year. That is a 150 per cent increase at a time the population has increased by just over 10 per cent. Interestingly, when Labor was last in government there was a $1.15 billion home care budget. Now there is a $3.2 billion home care budget. Funding has almost tripled. There has been an almost 200 per cent increase in the time that we have been in government. What that means is that the fastest growth is in home care places, but we have committed to do more with the extra 10,000 places focused on the higher levels. That is part of a broader program where we have set out the tailored program, we have committed to working towards the goal of ending waiting periods inherited from a previous government, reduced in just the last year where we added 25 per cent in one year to the size of a home care program and a home care program which will have grown 150 per cent in our time in government.

Think of what the ratio of home care places was to population and to the elderly population under the previous government and think of what it is now.

Ms Collins interjecting—

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