Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I won't ask about my year 6 history essays! My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Today I met with Christine from Penrith who has spent 16 years caring for aged-care residents. Christine says things have got much worse under this government and that residents are no longer getting the care they deserve. She's made the difficult decision to leave the industry. Why hasn't the Prime Minister addressed the chronic workforce shortage and the conditions affecting aged-care workers and the people in their care?

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

I want to thank the Leader of the Opposition for the question and in particular to thank all of those aged-care workers: the nurses, the personal care workers, those that have assisted through the course of the pandemic.

Andrew Wallace (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Member for Hotham!

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

Shortly after coming to office, one of the things that the Prime Minister did was to call a royal commission because we were faced with the shocking findings of the inquiries into the Oakden scandal, the South Australian aged-care home that was run by the public sector under the previous Labor government there. The Prime Minister called that royal commission precisely because, on our watch, we wanted to make a fundamental difference. What we have seen is a $17.7 billion investment in aged care over and above what was in place previously. We have gone from $13.3 billion of annual expenditure, when Labor was in government, to now $27 billion, $30 billion, $32 billion and $33 billion—

Andrew Wallace (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Hotham will leave under 94(a).

The member for Hotham then left the chamber.

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

so a $20 billion increase in aged care investment and expenditure. In response to the royal commission, we have put in place 80,000 additional home-care packages, 40,000 in 2021-22 and 40,000 in 2022-23, so $6½ billion over four years. We have put in place $798 million to support informal carers and $272 million to connect senior Australians to aged-care services. In particular, in residential accommodation facilities, we have put in place $7.3 billion over five years from the current year, which is currently being held up in the Senate by the ALP.

In addition to that, we have the aged-care new funding mechanism, AN-ACC, and $189 million to help our residential aged-care facilities. We are also improving access to primary care, $365 million; empowering consumers of aged care, $200 million; and, very importantly, growing the workforce helping our seniors with $216 million. Now we have also put in place $600 million of retention bonuses. We've announced $800, the fourth such bonus, for those workers that have been serving through the pandemic, those workers that have helped lead to an outcome which has saved countless lives by comparison with countries around the world. We've had one of the lowest rates of loss of life in aged care. Each life lost has been an immense sadness for the families affected, but because of the work of our aged-care workers we have saved thousands of lives. We thank them and we honour them.