Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I do note that there were no details in that answer—no guarantee that no facility would be worse off and no guarantee that there will be no losers. Can the minister confirm that, under the package, the government has just rebadged the pensioner supplement as capital funding when providers were already receiving this $2,260 per annum and using it to cover care costs? Isn’t this just an accounting trick to try and cover the capital funding shortfall in the high-care sector? Isn’t it inevitable that if providers now use these funds for capital costs they will have to cut back on care?