Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I've said publicly on a number of occasions—and the government says the same thing more broadly—that we want older Australians to be able to get the care that they need as soon as possible. So, that's the process, and that's why we've continued to add additional capacity into the system. Last financial year we increased the capacity of the home care sector by 25 per cent. This year we've put in an additional 15,000 packages. We want Australians to be able to access the care that they need as soon as they possibly can. We won't do what Labor did with pink batts and VET FEE-HELP, where they created a circumstance for shonky providers to come into the market. Doing so would undermine the safety of senior Australians. We're going to do this, as I've said a number of times, with good policy, properly delivered, and in a way that provides the sort of care that older Australians need.