Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If you're lucky in life, you'll get old, grey and good looking—a bit like me! I was scheduled to speak on the Aged Care Bill 2024, before it was guillotined. However, I wanted to ensure that my constituents of Dawson know that ageing gracefully and with dignity is important to me. When you have worked hard your entire life, it is only fair that the government provide assistance in your golden years. We need to ensure that any legislation promotes dignity and independence, values elders in our society and is strong and sustainable for the future generations.

In good faith, the coalition worked to ensure that the government's reforms suited regional and rural Australia, not just those in the big cities. The coalition pushed the Labor government to include grandfathering arrangements, lifetime caps, a much lower taper rate and an assurance that the federal government will remain the priority funder of aged care—not the consumer. The introduction of the grandfathering arrangements into this legislation is most critical. This guarantees that Australians who are already in residential aged care or on a home-care package, or are waiting for an allocated home-care package, will not see any changes to their existing arrangements. This means any Australian who is currently in the aged-care system will not pay one cent more. Another vital component was a lifetime cap. This means that the maximum contribution payable is fixed, providing families with peace of mind.

I'm proud to come from a rural and regional area, but unfortunately this also has come with its issues. That is why the coalition negotiated with the government to secure an additional investment of $300 million in capital funding for regional, rural and remote aged-care providers.

While there have been significant achievements made by the coalition on this bill, it is important to remember that this is Labor's package of reforms. This bill was not co-designed with the coalition. In this bill, this Labor government has failed to address critical issues such as workforce, regulatory impacts and implementation timelines. Last year alone, 49 aged-care homes closed under the Albanese Labor government. This bill cannot force the closure of more homes. We want Australians to live their life with dignity. The coalition has fought, and always will fight, for elderly Australians who live in rural and regional areas.