Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

For the record, I did refer to the Minister for Education and Training. What this highlights again is that this is a government that is in chaos. It is a government that has been built on lies and broken promises. It is a government that is full of backflips and quick fixes. When it comes to issues in relation to the area that I am responsible for, and that is aged care, we saw this government come into office with no policies, no vision and no plan for the future of the ageing community in this country. We saw them take away a supplement in the sector for those who were caring for those people with severe behavioural issues relating to dementia. What have we seen? We have seen a quick fix brought in with a flying squad that is not going to do anything at all to address the concerns of those in the sector who are caring for the most vulnerable people in our community who are living with dementia. They have sent in a flying squad but there is no plan, and this is supposed to be implemented by the end of this year.

This is a government that is in chaos. This is a government that was so critical of the former Labor government. But since coming in to office their promise of being an adult government, a government of no surprises, could not have been further from the truth. It does not matter whether people in this chamber put their concerns on the record here. We know that those people on the other side do not listen to us and that they do not listen to the community. They have failed to ensure that they are listening to the community. The community has stopped listening to them because the community no longer has any faith in this government. (Time expired)