Julian Simmonds (Ryan, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Save me from the righteous indignation of the member for Moreton and the Labor members opposite, who have suddenly discovered, virtually overnight they would have us believe, older Australians in our community. The idea that the member for Moreton can stand up in this place and say that the government's announcement of 10,000 new home care packages is a joke—when he and his Labor colleagues went to the last election with how many home care packages? A big fat zero. And that was despite promising $387 billion of extra taxes so they could tax 387 billion extra dollars out of the Australian community, including taxing older Australians with a retiree tax. And how many home care packages could they promise? Zero. The idea that they've suddenly woken up and remembered the older Australians in our community and the need to care for them is a joke—whereas, the Morrison government, time and time again, has shown its dedication to older Australians in our community by making sure that we are having the Aged Care Royal Commission and that we are responding to it.

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr Deputy Speaker, the Labor members are up in arms about it because they don't like it being pointed out that at the last election they promised zero new home care packages. We all know why they did it: because they can't manage money. The Labor members cannot manage money, and when you can't manage money, you can't respond to the urgent needs of our community like we have done recently in responding to the interim report on aged care. Our senior Australians have given so much to our nation. They helped to build our community and they're role models for younger generations. So ensuring senior Australians are cared for with dignity and respect is a priority of the Morrison government.

One of the first decisions the Prime Minister made upon taking office was to establish a royal commission into aged care. He knew that we could be confronted with some very difficult stories, and we have been. But, without a full and complete understanding of the issues, we run the risk of doing what previous Labor governments have done: trying to stick a bandaid on things and not tackling the significant change that is required. The aged-care royal commission has shown us that some providers are falling well short of expectations in our community. Australians, rightly, expect safe, high-quality care when it comes to our loved ones, and it is with this in mind that we welcome the interim report from the royal commission. We all have work to do when it comes to fixing these failings: government, aged-care providers and the community, all working together.

Before I go on, I want to make it clear that, whilst we focus on the need to improve, this is not a broad brush that should tar all aged-care providers. There are some aged-care providers in my electorate of Ryan who are doing tremendous work in their community, and I'd like to pay tribute to them and all those who work providing aged care to our community.

The royal commission will continue their work and the government will continue to tackle the issues that it unmasks. But, in the meantime, the government has taken significant steps to respond to the interim report. Perhaps the Labor members opposite, including the member for Macquarie who moved this motion, have forgotten the significant investment that the Morrison government has made: a recently announced half a billion dollar investment to take on the findings of the interim report and to provide immediate action.

The $537 million goes towards three things. Firstly, as of yesterday, 1 December, there will be a further 10,000 home care packages rolled out. As I said, this stands in stark contrast with the Labor members opposite, who went to the last election promising a big fat zero. Since the 2018-19 budget the government has invested $2.7 billion in 44,000 new home-care packages. We have also more than doubled the number of home care packages available to a record 150,412 this financial year, up from 60,000 in 2012-13 under Labor. Let me just repeat that: Labor, when it left office, had managed a little over 60,000 home care packages; under this government, it's now over 150,000.

Secondly, we're funding better medication management and more training for those caring for people with dementia. Funding for medication management programs will be increased by $25 million— (Time expired)

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