Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Aged Care and for Sport. How is the Albanese Labor government helping our crucial aged-care workers to earn more and keep more of what they earn?

Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bennelong for his question. Last week he and I met with aged-care workers in his electorate at Uniting Arrunga in Ermington. One of the many reasons that I am proud to be a member of this government is that we prioritised aged-care workers and people like Joan, who the member for Bennelong and I met last. Joan is a personal-care worker who works and lives in the electorate of Bennelong. Joan told us that she started working in aged care more than ten years ago with her friends Christie, Melinda and Judy. When they began working in aged care last decade, Joan and her friends were receiving less than $20 per hour. Imagine that—being paid less than $20 per hour to do some of the most valuable and yet demanding work that we have in this country. But Joan stuck with it because she loves her job and because she loves the people who she looks after. This year, for the very first time, Joan was able to tell us that her pay now exceeds $30 an hour. That is because the Albanese government made a commitment to back workers like Joan, like Christie, like Melinda and like Judy in the Fair Work Commission to get a meaningful pay rise. And that is what we did. That commitment has meant that personal care workers like Joan are now taking home an additional $141 per week, or more than $7,300 every year.

On this side we recognise that there are tough economic realities at play at the moment. That is the difference between us and those opposite; we are determined to help. We are providing even more cost-of-living relief by making sure that people like Joan and her friends can earn more and keep more of what they earn. From 1 July, Labor's tax cuts will also deliver personal-care workers in aged care an $1,166 tax cut, almost double what they were due to receive from the coalition. This investment in aged-care workers is paying dividends for the older people in their care.

Under the Albanese government there is now a registered nurse onsite in aged care 98.7 per cent of the time, on average—that is, 23.69 hours a day. Older people are receiving an additional 2.16 million minutes of care every single day. And there has been reduction in the number of pressure injuries in aged care, in the number of physical restraints used in aged care and in significant unplanned weight loss in aged care. We are also seeing improvements in our star ratings data, with fewer one- and two-star rated facilities and more four- and five-star rated facilities.

Today, I met with the CEO of Dementia Australia, and she said that her members who live with dementia who rely on the aged-care system, who rely on personal care workers are seeing real differences on the ground now. And it's thanks to people like Joan.