Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

I'm quite sad that I'm having to stand here and speak on this Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025; it shouldn't haven't gotten to this stage. I'm sad for those we have to protect. The No. 1 role of any government is to protect its citizens—our youngest citizens, those that are working so hard throughout their lives and into retirement, and our oldest citizens who need the greatest care; it is what they deserve. Unfortunately for 108,000 older Australians, they haven't got the care that they deserved. They have been on the waitlist, waiting while this government drags its feet, waiting while this government removes the promise it made prior to the election that there will be aged care in their homes. Any person who has older parents, all of us in here, know what I'm saying. They have grandparents or parents going through this. This is real life stuff. This isn't just about parliamentarians making decisions in this place; it's about parliamentarians making decisions for the good of our country, and there is no greater good than protecting those who have done so much throughout their lives.

We dragged the government through the House, through the Senate, through the public sphere, through the media, to finally make a decision that 20,000 places will be released now. There are 108,000 on the waitlist, and 20,000 released now. Because of the pressure, another 20,000 will be released by the end of the year; 43,000 by the end of the financial year, in line with a promise this government made prior to the election, a promise this government made to every Australian family, to our older Australians, to families looking after parents and grandparents. I can just imagine the dismay people are feeling across our country right now that it had to get to this. It has had to get to the government being embarrassed in public to release these places.

We've heard personal stories and anecdotes. The member for Mayo got up in tears and told the story of how she held a gentleman's hand in her electorate before she passed. The gentleman shouldn't have been in that position. He should have had that place. He should have had that package, but he didn't. He waited. Then he passed away. You can't want to be a parliamentarian that serves your community without feeling really deeply the hurt for so many thousands of Australians that have had to go through this.

We are pleased—I don't know if 'pleased' is the word or if 'satisfied' is even the word. We accept that we are now in this position where the government has relented and agreed, through huge pressure that we've given on behalf of the Australian people, to make these amendments, to approve them, to bring them back here. It's an historic amendment for this parliament. It's a testament that, even though we may be small in opposition, every single member of parliament here is loud in the support that we have for our people right across Australia.

Once again I say, as we have this win for Australians, it is with sadness that we have had to get to this place. We stood up for older Australians across this country when the Albanese Labor government abandoned them. This situation should never have happened. The money was in the budget. The capacity was there. It is only Labor that stood in the way. It is a black mark on the government that they were purposely withholding support from hundreds of thousands of older Australians who have given so much—hundreds of thousands of older Australians who desperately needed it. Quite frankly, people were dying while they waited—5,000 in the past year alone. This is a crisis of the government's own making, and we on this side will continue to fight for every single Australian.

Question agreed to.

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