Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I kind of enjoyed Senator Cadell's contribution a little earlier, but I found it a bit confusing. I've had a cat and a dog before and I don't remember those sorts of issues being raised. I'm not sure whether we need to check on the welfare of Senator Cadell's dog or cat! But, anyway, they were interesting metaphors that he used.

Senator Cadell also suggested in his contribution that if Senator Farrell were pitching a film to Hollywood it would be called 'The Avoidance'. I would reflect that if that is their view of Senator Farrell's contribution to question time then perhaps their questions will be pitched as a film called The Irony. The Audacity might be another good title, if we're going to be renaming these contributions as films.

That last question on aged care—I mean, come on! The royal commission report into aged care, which came down under the previous government, was literally called Neglect. It does not get clearer than that. The failures in aged care under the previous government were blindingly obvious for all of us to see. I won't repeat some of the horrific details which came out of aged-care homes during that time, but I think everyone in this country could agree that the aged-care sector was in absolute crisis. That's why we came to the election with an ambitious plan to fix it. Frankly, it deserved nothing less. We, as Labor people, can't read a report called Neglect without seeking to respond to it with the utmost ambition. To have nurses in nursing homes 24/7 is a high ambition. Do you know what, Mr Acting Deputy President? We're 80 per cent of the way there. Nine per cent of services are close. We are hopeful that we will get all the way there, but it is likely there'll be exemptions for some, because workforce is a serious challenge. It's a challenge which didn't start 10 months ago. It's a challenge that started 10 years ago, under the previous government. We've been in government 10 months; they were in government for almost a decade.

So the workforce challenges are serious and they won't be fixed overnight, but what we have done is to support a wage increase for aged-care workers. We not only supported it and backed it in but are paying for it. That's because this sector and the workers within it have not felt valued, and it's very hard to attract workers to a sector where they don't feel valued and where they're not paid appropriately for the work that they do. So that's part of fixing the workforce challenge. I don't make any apologies for having high ambitions in this space. Frankly, if you have anything short of high ambitions in aged care then, honestly! So, there you go, Senator Cadell: audacity or irony—you choose.

And it wasn't just on aged care today; then we got to energy prices and climate change. They had 22 failed energy policies over the term of their government. If they were serious about taking action on energy prices, or about supporting investment in renewables and other forms of power which would help to alleviate pressure on electricity and energy prices, they would have pulled the show together and delivered an energy policy that could stick. We've had a decade of inaction and disunity on climate change and energy policy in this country, and we're staring down the barrel of more because they're not coming to the table on safeguards—and it seems that those guys over there aren't coming to the table on safeguards. If we want another decade of failed energy and climate policy then that's what to do. The audacity and irony of it!

On wages more broadly: there could not be a clear indication of the difference in values between our government and the opposition than on wages. There is the sheer fact that low wages were a deliberate design feature of their economic architecture, but we wanted to see wages increase. This speaks for itself; actually, it speaks volumes about the values of the modern-day Liberal Party and the values of the Labor movement. We came in and backed an increase to the minimum wage, and we supported increases for aged-care workers to get that sector back on track. Being a government of high ambition and strong and consistent values—being a government that gives a damn—is not something I will ever apologise for. The irony and the audacity of the questions today!