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

a scandal which should lead to absolute shame on the opposition benches but about which they seem to have airbrushed from their memory. But, as a consequence, the royal commission called out historic neglect, called out an intergenerational challenge that this country has faced. The response has been an investment going from $13 billion, increasing now as we see it, to $27 billion, to $30 billion, to $32 billion, to $33 billion—a $20 billion increase from when Labor was last in government to the end of the current forward estimates, again to be increased in this year's budget.

And, as part of that, what we have done in particular is put in place absolutely vital aspects of higher care. And that includes actions, which have passed this House, to put in place greater screening for workers. And these are being blocked. These measures to protect aged-care residents are being blocked in the Senate right now by Labor. They are standing in the way of protection for older Australians.

So they come to the dispatch box. They come to this House. They talked about assisting older Australians in residential aged care and they blocked the very means of delivering that protection for older Australians. They have learned nothing from Oakden, they have learned nothing from their failure to invest when they were in government and they have learned nothing from what has occurred in other countries around the world—a world in which we see that Australia has one of the lowest rates of a loss of life in aged care. Each one of those lives lost is an agony for the families involved, but each one of those lives saved is something for which we should be thankful, and, above all else, I thank the workers who contribute to that. (Time expired)

Honourable members interjecting—

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