Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Blair. He knows aged care well, having held the portfolio for Labor for a number of years. He knows that we, on this side of the House, over the last few years, have had no higher priority than strengthening Medicare and strengthening aged care, because aged care when we came to government was in the worst state it had been in in the more than 30 years that I had been working with that sector—tragically summed up by the royal commission in one word, the title to their interim report, which was 'neglect'.

We were utterly determined to turn that around. I don't think there was a single policy area where we made decisions to invest more money in the last term than in aged care, to deliver RNs 24/7—registered nurses on shift all the time. They said it couldn't be done, and we've delivered it. We've delivered more care minutes to every aged-care resident, delivered better wages to aged-care workers to allow providers to recruit and retain the workers we need to provide better food in aged-care facilities—

See this speech in context