Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

History cannot be changed simply by senators from the former government coming into this place and trying to change the reality of what happened for 10 years when they were in government. They left this country—taxpayers, every one of us—$1 trillion in debt. We know so well about the cost of living. Why do we know about the cost of living? It is because we actually go out to listen to and talk to everyday Australians all the time, unlike those opposite.

Let's get a few facts on the record. Let's talk about inflation and how that's impacting the globe. Yes, we are experiencing high inflation, and we're doing everything we can to reduce that. We talk about that in this place on a daily basis—sometimes every few hours, actually—in terms of what we have done since coming into government. We've increased wages for ordinary Australians. We've invested a lot of money into aged care. We've reduced the cost of medication. We've allowed you to get 60-day scripts, which helps people like me and others who have chronic illnesses to get 60 days of medication, which means they go back to their GP less often, which allows more appointments for other Australians.

But they don't want to hear about this. They don't want to hear about the investment we're making into TAFE by giving fee-free paces in TAFE for essential areas of the community where we need more workers. I can't let today go past, not in taking note and talking about aged care. For 10 years they were in government. They already had the foundations from the previous Labor minister in the Hon. Mark Butler, who set the new foundations for aged care and started that process. They came into government because that's what the Australian people voted for, and what happened? What happened for almost 10 years? Well, it hadn't even got to 10 years before they had to call a royal commission into aged care on their own failings. Why? Because they had only ripped money out. They used aged care as a teller machine. That's what they did when they were in government. They did not invest in the workforce. They did not invest in ensuring that there was a long-term strategy not only to keep people working in aged care and highly skill them but to attract new workers.

We will never apologise for putting older Australians first.

We won't apologise for reversing the neglect. The royal commission report was called 'neglect'. It was under this opposition, when they were in government, so we will not apologise for insisting that there are nurses in aged-care homes 24 hours a day. It was already happening in Tasmania but they still experienced neglect under those opposite. They invested nothing. The food that was being served up to older Australians, no-one in this chamber, I can assure you, would ever have eaten. Let's not even talk about the failure of six ministers—six ministers! Why did they fail? Because they really didn't care.

Those opposite come into this chamber and whinge. Now they are so concerned about the cost of living and inflation, housing crisis in this country but, when they had the opportunity to really do something, they did nothing. Since they've been in opposition, they are doing what they always do when they go into opposition—that is, they go 'no, no, no'. They voted against providing the funds to assure more affordable homes are built in this country. What did they do? They voted against ensuring that there is more social housing available for people who they probably don't even meet in their daily lives. What have they done for homelessness in this country? It is a blight on all of us that the fastest-growing cohort of homeless people in this country are women over 55.

Those opposite constantly criticise Labor about investing in superannuation. Why do we do that? Because we want every Australian worker to have the opportunity to have a secure retirement so they can afford to have a roof over their head, so they can afford to go to the doctor when they need to. We are investing in skills and training and in getting wages moving. When it was your policy, your own ministers used to say your policy was to keep wages low. We are in a crisis because you put us there with $1 trillion debt.