David Van (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition is committed to ensuring that the government stick to their election promises and their supposed commitment to aged care, because, so far, their performance towards aged care has been woeful. COVID is rampant in the aged-care community, and they don't have the slightest idea what to do about it. Almost 5,000 Australians have passed away from COVID-19 since 31 May 2022, and as of 22 July 2022 there were 9,537 active COVID-19 cases and 1,013 active outbreaks in residential aged-care facilities across Australia. Worse, there have been 2,187 reported deaths, in 2022, in aged-care facilities.

What is this government doing about it? Nothing. For the entirety of the pandemic, while this government was in opposition, they mischaracterised the coalition's performance on aged care. Now, when they have the opportunity—and, indeed, the duty—to act on their words, they're doing absolutely nothing. Senator Gallagher, on 8 February, said in this chamber:

There are problems in aged care, where the situation is so dire, with thousands infected with COVID, hundreds dying and staff not able to perform their jobs.

What is she saying now?

On that same day, Senator Watt—who was vocal, almost every day, in picking on our minister at the time—said that an aged-care facility was 'in complete meltdown', with deaths, from COVID, of 15 aged-care residents, and 182 residents and staff testing positive for COVID.

They're a lot lower than the numbers we're seeing right now in aged care. And what's this government doing? I could go on and pull many—probably hundreds, if not thousands—transcripts out of Hansard from the previous years and find pretty much any one of the Labor senators over there commenting on how bad the COVID outbreak was and how more needed to be done. However, the fact of the matter is, there are currently more cases, more deaths and more outbreaks in aged-care facilities than ever before.

The silence coming from the Labor Party is deafening. The Prime Minister is silent. The health minister is silent. The aged-care minister is silent. In fact, the whole Labor Party is silent—because they're embarrassed. Now that they actually have to try and solve the problem, all they can come up with is silence and hope that no-one notices. Instead of acting on their promises of registered nurses on site 24/7 hours a day, seven days a week, more carers with more time to care, a pay rise for aged-care workers, better food for residents and dollars going to aged care, they are delivering a revised version of the previous coalition government's legislation, the aged care and other legislation amendment royal commission response bill 2021, which, of course, as opposition, we support.

The health, safety and wellbeing of senior Australians is of the utmost importance to the coalition, and we are committed to ensuring that our generational changes of the aged-care system continue on from the 46th Parliament into the 47th Parliament. However, it is astounding that, after all their talk in opposition, the nine years that they had to work on legislation, and all the promises they made coming into the election, their first move is to introduce a bill developed by the coalition. Good on you, guys!

I don't blame them, because our record on aged care is excellent, and if they want good ideas they only have to look at what the coalition achieved and how we responded to the problems that were occurring in the aged-care sector at the time. When we were in government, our formal response to the royal commission's final report was to accept, or accept in principle, 126 of the 148 recommendations. This is because we listened to the experiences of the Australians who gave evidence to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, and took decisive action to implement the recommendations with the reforms to deliver vital services, improved quality of care and viability of the aged-care sector. In the 2022-23 budget, we delivered funding for aged-care reform of $522 million, and that built on the funding of $18.3 billion committed in the 2021-22 budget and the 2021-22 MYEFO. This brought the total investment by the coalition in response to the final report of the royal commission to more than $19.1 billion.

As I mentioned before, this legislation is a revised version of the previous coalition government's legislation: the Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response No. 2) Bill 2021. That makes you wonder why, if the government now supports this, they delayed the passage of this bill for six months while in opposition? I think you can pretty much guess the answer, because there is only one answer. The government, when in opposition, was willing to play politics at the expense of our elderly Australians, solely for political gain, which, personally, I find absolutely disgusting. When we were in government, we outlined clearly the importance of this legislation and the Labor Party clearly now agrees with us, since this bill is before us today. The government should be absolutely ashamed of themselves and of their conduct. By delaying the passage of this bill by six months and then backflipping on their position—which, as we know, they could do at Commonwealth or probably Olympic level these days—to introduce it as soon as they are in government shows that they are more concerned with political gain than with improving the lives of elderly Australians.

Collectively, this legislation forms the second step in the previous coalition government's five-year reform agenda through the five reform pillars: home care, residential aged-care services and sustainability; residential aged-care quality and safety; workforce; and governance. However, a key change from the original bill progressed in the 46th Parliament is removal of the worker screening regulations contained in schedule 2, which sought to establish nationally consistent pre-employment screening for aged-care workers. These were important new regulatory arrangements that responded in part to recommendation 77 of the royal commission. They prevented, and were designed to prevent, unsuitable workers from entering or remaining in the aged-care sector. So it is disappointing, to say the very least, that the government has now decided to remove these protections from the bill. Why would you remove those protections for our elderly?

The coalition is still committed to supporting Australians as they age, ensuring that they are afforded the dignity and the respect that they deserve in their later years of life, so we will support this bill. Unlike those opposite, we will not toy with the lives of elderly Australians simply for political gain. We will, however, continue to keep an eye on the government to ensure that they are acting in the best interests of elderly Australians and to ensure that they continue the coalition's work of delivering the reforms that are so needed, as outlined in the royal commission.