Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I don't know where the member for Sturt was, but things like workforce supplements and dementia supplements were all cut by the previous government. It was almost the first act of their tenure on the Treasury benches in relation to aged care. They couldn't find a budget or a MYEFO from which they didn't want to cut billions of dollars out of aged care. They shuffled the money around. In one budget they cut $3 billion out of aged care. We put $11.3 billion in the budget for 15 per cent pay rises to aged-care workforce salaries and wages, and they've got the gall to criticise us for that, when after nearly a decade in office they did nothing, except deliberately design to keep wages low in the sector. In fact, they cut the workforce supplements and the dementia supplements and the other kinds of supplements we provided under Living Longer, Living Better. Do you know why they cut them? It's because they were going to provide extra care and extra wages in the sector. That's why they cut them as a result of the Commission of Audit in 2014.

So don't give us lectures when we put the money in the budget. Their budget showed cuts to aged care. Their MYEFO showed cuts to aged care. Our budget showed increasing funding to aged care. There was $36 billion in the last budget and $11.3 billion to provide funding for much-needed wage rises for nurses and personal carers and those people providing care for older Australians, many of them living with dementia in residential aged care. What we're doing is acting on the recommendations of the royal commission. I thank the member for Jagajaga for what she has done.

What we're doing here in terms of funding for aged-care pay raises is stage 2 of 3 of the Fair Work Commission journey on its final decision. The government's committed to the final decision on the Fair Work Commission. Those opposite couldn't find a Fair Work Commission hearing that wouldn't not support wage rises. They simply couldn't bring themselves to support wage rises in the childcare sector, the SACS sector or the aged-care sector. Don't give us lectures and be all preachy and sermonising about supporting people in the aged-care sector when you kept on cutting funding in the aged-care sector year after year.

I want to recognise what we're doing: improving standards, strengthening food and nutrition, making sure we've got monthly care statements in the sector, enhancing the star ratings system for better quality of care in the sector and expanding the existing quality indicator program for in-home services. That's what this government is doing in acting on the recommendations of the royal commission: increasing care on the ground and legislating for extra nurses in the sector. Those opposite didn't do that over nine years, not at all. We're providing additional assistance to residential aged care. We have a task force looking at reform in the future. The reform those opposite thought was necessary was cuts in the aged-care sector. That's their idea of reform in the aged-care sector.

The royal commission handed down its decision, in terms of recommendations, about two years ago, and those opposite couldn't bring themselves to implement many of the recommendations at all. I want to commend the government for having directly addressed 69, almost half, of the 148 recommendations of the royal commission since coming to office. Those opposite were in power for about two years while the royal commission's recommendations lay dormant, languishing, while they didn't act upon them. The reality is that the aged-care system in this country has been in crisis for years, and they lacked the wisdom and the wit to do anything about it. Lethargy, inertia and idleness were the views of those opposite. A recurring number of ministers saw the aged-care sector as a stepping stone. Poor old Minister Colbeck really struggled all the time, all the way through. Like with the Department of Veterans' Affairs, those opposite, in government, couldn't find a way to fund it, and they couldn't find a way to support it, but they found a way to cut it. That's what happened every single year.

When you've got a situation where the royal commission's recommendation come in an interim report titled Neglectone word. A huge percentage of people were malnourished and starving, with maggots in their wounds. Those opposite failed on quality, funding and in so many ways in relation to aged care. (Time expired)

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