Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Improved Home Care Payment Administration No. 1) Bill 2020. In the limited time that I have, I also want to focus on the important second reading amendment that the shadow minister has moved regarding this critical issue for Australia. I know that all members of the House have been hearing the horrific stories of neglect and abuse. This is not confined to a partisan issue—to a Labor or Liberal issue. It is an issue affecting every single Australian. Quite frankly, that's why I am disappointed that the government have stopped speaking on this issue; that the government have given up either defending their poor record or wanting to put on record in this place the dire set of circumstances that we're seeing for aged care in this country.

Maybe the facts are too strong for the government, so they are either pretending they don't exist or they are in denial about how the aged-care sector is in crisis in this country. We know there are more than 100,000 Australians waiting for their approved care package. Sadly, 30,000 older Australians died over the past two years waiting for their approved home care package. It is just not good enough in a country like Australia to have that statistic. And I am shocked that not one member of the government will get up in the remainder of the debate today and actually talk about this issue. They may have their own reasons for doing that, but I think every single member of the government should be on their feet, discussing this issue and explaining what their plan is to deal with the aged-care crisis in this country, rather than just hoping that it will go away—hoping that some magic will happen to fix their neglect and their lack of funding to deal with the aged-care crisis in this country.

Wait times have blown out. People are dying on the list. The median wait time for older Australians going to residential aged care has grown by more than 100 days under the Liberals and Nationals—from just over a month to a five-month wait. What is the excuse for this? What is the justification for this? The silence from those opposite says it all.

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