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

Thank you, Senator, for your question and thank you particularly for your interest in improving the lives of senior Australians and their families. It's been clear over a period of time now that people want more choice. They want to stay connected to their communities, they want to stay as independent as possible and they want to remain in their own homes. Our government is delivering on that.

The government announced in the budget, as part of our response to the royal commission, a further $6.5 billion as an investment to release 80,000 additional home-care packages. That's 40,000 packages this financial year and a further 40,000 packages next financial year. That is the single largest investment in home-care packages ever. The new data shows that, in the three months to the end of September this year, the number of people with access to a home-care package grew to more than 204,000, which is an increase of over 41,000 in the last 12 months. Since the 2018-19 budget, this government has now invested a record $11.9 billion in new funding to deliver an additional 163,000 new home-care packages. By June 2023, there will be around 275,000 home-care packages available to senior Australians every year. Every year, under our government, home-care packages have been up, residential care places have been up, and aged-care funding has been up. Labor went to the last election with $387 billion in new tax proposals and not a single dollar for a home-care place or aged-care quality and safety of the workforce, and nothing for mainstream aged-care services. (Time expired)