Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

yes—to bring forward 20,000 new home-care packages. Amendments passed by the Senate have forced the government to urgently negotiate and bring forward that release of 20,000 home-care packages and front-load the release of the Support at Home program from 1 November. The Greens have for a long time been pushing the government hard to take action, chairing a Senate inquiry into the issue and putting forward amendments to the government's aged-care legislation. My Greens colleague Senator Penny Allman-Payne has worked very hard at this, and it is a credit to the work of her, to Senator David Pocock and to Senator Ruston that this reform has been achieved. This will begin the work of addressing the urgent needs of over 200,000 older Australians waiting 12 months or more for basic care like showering, cooking and cleaning. But there are still over 200,000 people on the waiting list for Support at Home, and this win will barely touch the sides. We're still seeing care rationed and older people treated, sadly, like commodities.

This government is looking more and more out of touch and desperate after being forced to change policy by the Greens and the crossbench. What is particularly concerning is how this government is allergic to transparency. They hid that the waiting list was not 87,000 but actually well over 200,000. They've hidden modelling on the financial impact on older people. They've hidden the fact that, until we forced them to, they were releasing no new packages at all. Together, we've ended those pointless delays and started getting older Australians the essential care that they really need. Labor has resisted all calls to do that right thing, so now the parliament has had to force them to. That is the power of the Greens and the crossbench working together, and it has made a real difference for older people in this country.

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