Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Rice for the question. There is a further stage to the Fair Work Commission case. This is the culmination of stages 1 and 2 on the aged-care case that has come up. The initial increase of 15 per cent was a stage 1 decision. Regarding stage 2, the commission has come back saying it thinks it should be paid on 1 July and should include some other workers in that arrangement. Now there's a subsequent process to consider the rest of the case.

You can see from the commitments we've made to date and the room that I'm currently trying to find in the budget to fund this, against these crazy attacks from the opposition, who prefer a head-in-the-sand approach to funding aged-care things—that is, don't fund them or argue against them—that we are making difficult decisions to be able to fund aged-care workers appropriately. (Time expired)