Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Seniors) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety is currently underway, as people would be aware, and the government is expecting an interim report on 31 October. My strong message to the government is: older Australians cannot wait for the government to fix the aged-care crisis in Australia—the aged-care crisis that it created under its watch. It has now been in government for six years. We have had four ministers. The government has ripped billions of dollars out of the residential aged-care system, and it got so bad it had to call a royal commission. My request of the government, for older Australians, is that the government must act now. It cannot wait until November 2020 to get the final report about what is happening in aged care in Australia today.

The latest release of data on the home care waitlist shows that, even after the release of some packages that the government promised ages ago, there are still 120,000 older Australians on a waitlist to get the home care package that they have been approved for. It is a shame. This government talks about priorities. We had the Prime Minister on the 7.30 program saying that home care packages would be a priority area for his government, but he hasn't done anything else about it. The community expects, I expect and everybody on this side of the parliament expects that, when it comes to the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, the government will actually prioritise older Australians and fund more home-care packages.