Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. Labor's theatre on the floor of this chamber isn't helpful. It's not problem solving. It's just insulting to everyone trying to fight their way through this devastating crisis. After failing to land any blows against the government over its handling of the crisis in aged-care facilities, they now reach into the past to try and make their desperate, unfounded case.

What has happened in Australian nursing homes has happened around the world. We are making sure and steady progress in fighting this insidious virus as we seek to stabilise the situation. Still, we are not so confident that we are ready to declare victory or to rest. Our strategy and our efforts change daily, as they're based on the very best advice of our very dedicated health professionals.

To suggest that the Morrison government doesn't care about our elderly is nonsensical and childish. We too have parents and loved ones in nursing homes around the country. I'm sick of hearing that everyone involved is not doing their utmost to save lives. We've staff who have lost parents who have been farewelled without fanfare because of the tough quarantine restrictions on nursing homes. And they have been back at work 24 hours later. I haven't seen my own elderly mother, who lives in a nursing home, for close to six months. The suggestion that our government leaders don't care is simply irresponsible—

Senator Pratt interjecting—

especially as we engage in this war where Australians are dying, Senator Pratt. Tragically, this is Australia right now and we must be strong. We're getting on with the job of fighting COVID in aged-care homes around the country and we won't give up.

It's in this environment that we address Labor's illogical accusations that we've cut spending on the aged-care sector. Total aged-care spending under Labor was $13.3 billion when they left office, compared to $22.6 billion this year under the coalition, rising to more than $25 billion in 2022-23. Only Labor—or perhaps the Greens as well—could call billions of dollars of investment a cut. Those claims have also been disproven by the ABC's Fact Check. At a time when Australia is faced with unprecedented and heartbreaking challenges, the best that Labor's wet-lettuce brigade can do is to undermine.

Perhaps we should revisit Labor's record during the heady days of Rudd's and Gillard's leadership, when confusion and ineptitude were the order of the day. Let me take you back: Justine Elliot was the lacklustre Minister for Ageing, and Labor promised to improve the transition between hospital and aged care. They failed. It was a time when Labor cynically shunted aged care to the Productivity Commission so it didn't report on Labor's other aged-care failures until well after the election. Labor overpromised and underdelivered on transitional housing, zero-interest loans and nurse numbers. In fact, the commitment to deliver more nurses fell so short that a mere 13 per cent of the promised extra thousand workers ever materialised. Labor failed the aged-care sector. Labor have never provided the funds and support that the Morrison government have provided to elderly Australians.

In contrast to Labor's abysmal record of failing to deliver and hurling insults and manufactured allegations, the Morrison-led government is working vigorously and sensibly to fight COVID-19. Recently, we offered to step in to help Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews fight COVID-19 in aged-care facilities in Victoria. That's because we need to work together, for the sake of all Australians, like grown-ups—grown-ups with metal. In Victoria we've now taken further measures, with another $9 million provided to coordinate a response between the Commonwealth and the Victorian Labor government. We're working to assist a Labor Premier who has been overwhelmed due to COVID-19 deaths in aged-care facilities.

There are other tragedies occurring. Families are cut off from their loved ones. My heart aches for those families desperate to see their loved ones as time runs out. It's simply not the time for childish finger-pointing and cheap political pointscoring, especially given Labor's own obvious failures in this sector. Our commitment has been sincere. How can you suggest that $1.2 billion of extra support for older Australians over the forward estimates is a cut? On other fronts, new home-care packages have increased from around 60,000 under Labor in 2012-13 to 164,000 under the Morrison government in the 2022-23 period. That's an increase of 170 per cent. As at 31 March 2020, 151,000 people had access to a home-care package, compared to 111,000 at the same time last year. That's an increase of 36 per cent in just 12 months. As at 31 March this year, 98½ per cent of senior Australians who were waiting for a package at their assessed level had been offered support by the government.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we've provided $1 billion to support seniors in aged care. Of that money, a quarter of a billion dollars has been provided to residential aged-care providers for costs associated with COVID-19. We and our public health officials have provided our best advice; sadly, that advice hasn't always been a success. It's at this time that we should remember the work of our aged-care workers, who've battled on the front lines and ensured that 92 per cent of our aged-care homes remain COVID-free. Of course we're not infallible, but we continue to make the best decisions made on the best advice daily.

Our investment continues—an additional $12½ million has been provided for grief and trauma support services to assist aged-care residents, their families and loved ones who've experienced a COVID-19 outbreak. That increase means the government has provided more than $100 million for these services. There is $9 million for the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to continue its vital work in supporting aged-care providers across the country to prepare and respond to COVID-19 outbreaks.

Then there is the funding to help aged-care workers in hotspots. Whether they be aged-care or residential care workers, there is funding to support their needs for self isolation and, where necessary, alternative accommodation. The federal government has responded with additional funding for extra PPE from the National Medical Stockpile, providing Victorian aged-care providers with five million more facemasks and half a million face shields. As part of the strategy, the commission will commence unannounced visits to monitor infection control and protection equipment protocols.

Our government has made some very tough decisions, decisions that have impacted so many. We've instituted strong and often painful restrictions on visitation at aged-care homes. We've provided emergency leave for aged-care residents whose loving families want to look after them. We've temporarily removed restrictions on international students working in aged care and we've provided additional flexibility to home-care providers for personal monitoring services. These measures all complement the $1.1 billion we've spent on facemasks and other protective measures Australia wide. We're tackling isolation and loneliness in older Australians, with close to $5 million for FriendLine, a national telephone support for older Australians, to expand the phone support services until 2024. There is $1 million dollars for digital devices, such as mobile phones and laptops, for at-risk seniors and there has also been the establishment of the Older Persons COVID-19 Support Line.

Our Prime Minister has tasked the royal commission into aged care to examine our response, even as we act. That takes real leadership. Just think about that for a moment and remember that Labor's performance in the aged-care sector was so bad that the then minister, Justine Elliot, deferred the review of the aged-care planning ratio. At the last election, Labor provided no additional funding in their costings for home-care places or any additional funding for aged-care quality or workforce, or for mainstream residential aged care. Labor has remained silent on any commitment to aged-care since the election; it's a demonstration of their hypocrisy. The Morrison government continues to exemplify leadership and cooperation, even as we reach out to Labor in Victoria to help them solve their aged-care crisis.