Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Let me say from the outset that the Morrison government is committed to ensuring a high quality of aged care for all senior Australians. I reject the argument, particularly from Senator Watt, that Minister Colbeck is the only person who can fix the problems with the aged-care sector. The aged-care sector has thousands of employees. It is up to all of us to make sure that we carry out our fiduciary duties. To lay the blame solely at Minister Colbeck's feet is just typical Labor smearing. They haven't released a policy on what their so-called solutions are. They'd rather sit there and throw dirt day in, day out and attack the individual rather than addressing the crux of the matter.

It should be noted that the Morrison government has made improvements to aged care for all senior Australians. The reason the Prime Minister called a royal commission into aged care was so that we could actually find the right solutions. We were totally open and transparent about it. The Labor Party didn't call a royal commission into the aged-care sector. They're not interested in actually finding solutions. They're only interested in looking at the problems and then laying blame at Minister Colbeck's feet, rather than delivering real, substantial outcomes. It's worth noting that the coalition government is delivering record investment across the aged-care system. We invested over $21.3 billion in the year ending 2020, up from $13.3 billion in the last year Labor was in government, 2012-13. That's an increase of about 50 per cent in the seven years of the coalition government. It works out at about $1.5 billion every year in extra support for senior Australians.

We've also invested in additional home-care packages. We've announced a record $5.5 billion for an additional 83,000 home-care packages since the 2018-19 budget. So, in the last two years, we've added an additional 83,000 home-care packages. Overall, there are now almost 200,000 packages that have been fully funded, and that compares to just 60,000 when Labor were last in government. It's worth thinking about that. We have increased by 300 per cent the number of home-care packages available to senior Australians on top of the extra 50 per cent, or $7 billion, invested into aged-care homes. Importantly, around 99 per cent of senior Australians waiting for a package at their assessed level have also been offered support from the government, including an interim package of the Commonwealth Home Support Program. Of course, it should also be noted that they continue to have access to our world-class healthcare system, which has done a fantastic job in the last 12 months of supporting our seniors throughout the COVID crisis.

The Morrison coalition government believes in a strong aged-care sector with a high-quality and skilled workforce that will provide senior Australians with the care they rightly deserve and give all Australians confidence that our elderly are cared for with kindness, respect and dignity. The government, so far, has acted on its interim and COVID-19 reports and will carefully consider final recommendations when they are handed down later this month. Obviously, we will also take very seriously and seek to act upon the advice from the royal commission.

Making improvements to aged care is actually one of the Morrison government's key priorities. Commissioner Briggs of the royal commission stated as a final part of the hearings of the commission that she had detected a number of problems in the aged-care system and was determined to pursue a genuine reform agenda. I'll finalise this again. We, the Morrison government, are committed to providing senior Australians with the most high-quality aged-care services. (Time expired)