Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We must always remember that it's our seniors who built this nation. They worked hard, raised their families and paid their taxes. We have a duty as a nation to ensure that every older Australian is treated with dignity and respect and we must ensure they can access the services that they need when they require them. Instead the Morrison government's crisis in aged care has shown how incompetent they are in protecting our elderly. This government was warned by experts that our already troubled aged-care system was vulnerable in the pandemic. They were warned and didn't act, and the consequences are tragic. Every day we hear of new COVID infections in aged care—more than 1,000 active cases and 412 deaths in residential aged care.

We've heard from the royal commission that evidence was ignored, that plans weren't put in place and that these issues could have been prevented. This from a government that shamefully cut $1.7 billion from the aged care sector. We're seeing the results of those cuts right across the board, and these cuts are hurting some of the most vulnerable in our community. This government is a disgrace when it comes to aged care. Their legacy will be their incompetence—$1.7 billion in cuts, more than 100,000 Australians waiting for home-care packages, 1,000 active COVID cases and, tragically, 412 deaths in our nursing homes. This government has absolutely no plan for aged care. But Labor does. Some of our suggestions include minimum staffing levels in residential care; reducing the home-care package waiting lists so more people could stay in their homes longer; and ensuring transparency and accountability of funding to support high-quality care and better training for staff, including on infection control.

It's not just the government's aged care incompetence that's hurting our older Australians. This government's plan to freeze the age pension at current rates will severely impact our seniors. The government has refused to increase the pension and has said it would keep it at the current rate with no indexation. This is shameful. Most other payments, including the disability support pension and the carer payment, will not be indexed either. In my electorate of Richmond across the New South Wales North Coast there are more than 25,000 aged pensioners. There are also more than 7,400 disability support pensioners and over 2,200 locals who receive the carer payment, who will also have their payments frozen. Cutting the household income of our pensioners is a cruel act by a cruel government. Pensioners have been facing increasing costs of health, dental, energy and grocery bills for years now. Now what's happening? The government is cutting their pensions.

We have a duty as a nation to ensure that every older Australian is treated with respect and dignity. This government must ensure that our pensioners receive the support and services they need and deserve. This government has failed our pensioners, and its absolute incompetence has resulted in this tragedy in the aged-care sector. It is a shameful act by a shameful government that cut funding in aged care. The result is these tragic deaths that we are seeing right throughout the sector. They should take responsibility.

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