Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Well, it's not surprising that they were scrambling, looking for a cut that didn't exist! We were looking and searching, 'Where is the cut?' So we said: 'No, no, you have to explain; you see, the Labor Party have put out this disingenuous information, "Oh, no, that was a cut—that was a cut." We now know that there have been no cuts in the aged-care sector.' So, can you blame the Treasurer? When we get a bit of information he has to check it. Yes, there probably is an email trail that says, 'We will seek them here and seek them there.' Well, it didn't take long. The senator should have said, 'If Labor tells you something, you've got to be very, very careful about it; don't be sucked in by the partisan politics.'

But I have to say about whatever scrambling there was to try to work out what this information was, that as soon as someone explained to everyone on this side, 'Look, that's only disinformation from Labor,' we went, 'Oh, okay, we can relax a bit and get on with business.' Because they know—everybody on this side of the parliament knows—that the investments we have made in aged care, the investments we've made in infrastructure, the investments we've made in the legislative framework and the investments we've made in an aged-care cop on the block have absolutely eclipsed anything they've ever done.

This is all new; none of those processes were here when we got here—not a sausage! We've introduced every single element of this. We've introduced this. There is absolute silence from the other side, and you should be silent and you should be ashamed by your complete lack of action in looking after our most vulnerable Australians. Really, it is so nauseating to sit on this side, because we know how little you've done. You've done absolutely nothing, so don't lecture us!