Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Aged Care and Minister for Sport. How is the Albanese Labor government investing to help aged-care workers upskill, earn more and keep more of what they earn? How does this compare to other approaches to aged care which would leave people worse off?

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

I thank the member for Werriwa for her question and for all the wonderful work that she does looking after recipients of aged care in Werriwa. The Albanese government is firmly focused on the issues that matter to Australians: easing the cost of living whilst fighting inflation, and providing opportunities to upskill in a future made in Australia. As the Minister for Aged Care, I would argue that our commitment to delivering on these issues is best reflected through us prioritising aged-care workers. Since 2023, the Albanese government has invested more than $15 billion to increase the award wage for more than 250,000 aged-care workers. Under the Albanese government, registered nurses are earning an extra $14,685 every single year, and, with Labor's tax cuts, they're keeping an extra $1,745 in their pockets. Personal care workers with a certificate III are more than $10,573 a year better off. With Labor's tax cuts, they're also keeping an extra $1,166 in their pockets.

And, while we're helping aged-care workers earn more and keep more of what they earn, we're also making it more affordable for them to go to TAFE and to uni so that they can provide high-quality care to older Australians. This is helping workers like Elizabeth, whom I met at the South Bank TAFE a few weeks ago. Elizabeth is one of the 130,000 students who have enrolled in a care course through fee-free TAFE. Elizabeth has worked in aged care for two years, and she absolutely loves it. She told me, 'I feel like I have 100 bonus grandmothers and grandfathers as a result of my work.' Two years into aged care, Elizabeth was inspired to enrol in a diploma of nursing to become an enrolled nurse, something she could only dream of doing thanks to fee-free TAFE.

But I was asked how the government's cost-of-living support for aged-care workers compares with the coalition's. I can tell the member for Werriwa that Elizabeth would be significantly worse off under the coalition, because those opposite have never supported a pay rise for aged-care workers and those opposite have never supported fee-free TAFE. Instead, the coalition's big, secretly costed policy is to allow companies to take potential clients out to taxpayer funded lunches and entertainment. So the news for Elizabeth is, under a coalition government, she wouldn't get a pay rise or tax cuts or affordable higher education. She wouldn't get help to care for her bonus grandfathers and grandmothers. But, according to the coalition's publicly defined parameters of their own policy, businesses could spend up to $20,000 of Elizabeth's own taxpayer funds to attend something like, for example, the Super Bowl to lather themselves in buffalo wings and baby back ribs, nodding along to Kendrick Lamar—all subsidised by the Australian taxpayer. This is just another reason why those opposite are not like us. They're not like us.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.