Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Across the board, relief is what people say they feel after the election of our Labor government—relief that, finally, things will be done in a number of areas. Probably the most relieved are our workers and residents in aged care.

The bills that were moved this week are a step towards correcting what has been an injustice in this sector. These workers have been here this week in parliament telling the stories that they've been telling us for over a decade. But now they have hope because they have a government that is listening to them.

In my own electorate, I am constantly being contacted by people sharing their stories. Our aged-care workers are exhausted. They are paid very little, they are still going through isolation periods and battling their own illnesses, and they are worried about their residents. They're concerned about not having nurses on shift on weekends or about having people who are sick.

There are some horror stories about nurses being asked to work 24 hours straight because the next nurse coming on is sick and they can't get agency staff. You can imagine how frustrated they are when the opposition tries to belittle and demonise and say: 'How many? How many nurses?' A lot of nurses are needed, a lot of extra workers are needed, and these workers are so relieved that they now have a government that is going to work with them on rebuilding their workforce.