House debates
Monday, 17 September 2018
Questions without Notice
Aged Care
2:00 pm
Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
My question is to the Prime Minister. Yesterday, the Prime Minister stated:
We are committed to providing older Australians with access to care that supports their dignity …
If that is the case, why, when he was Treasurer, in his first budget, did the now Prime Minister cut $1.2 billion from aged care? How did cutting $1.2 billion from aged care support the dignity of vulnerable older Australians?
Mr Frydenberg interjecting—
The SPEAKE R: The Treasurer will cease interjecting.
2:01 pm
Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I was hoping there'd be some bipartisanship when it came to the issues of aged care. But clearly the opposition—
Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I will retain some hope on that front, but I will address the Leader of the Opposition's question. Only with Labor Party financial management could it happen that you would increase the budget for aged care by a billion dollars every single year and that, in their minds, would be a cut to funding. We are increasing the funding for aged care by a billion dollars extra every single year from the 2016-17 budget and going out to the end of the forward estimates. Only under the Labor Party can one plus one equal zero. That's how they do their maths. That's how the shadow Treasurer adds up. But this side of the House has a track record for strong financial management, and it is only through a strong economy that we've been able to boost funding for aged care by a billion dollars extra every single year—
Ms Ryan interjecting—
Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
and, on top of that, ensure we're delivering more in-home aged-care places.
Ms Ryan interjecting—
Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The member refers to the 2016-17 budget. He may be interested to know what the sector said about the 2016-17 budget when it comes to aged care. It said:
Elements of the 2016 Budget measures to slow the dramatic above trend growth in ACFI funding would have had unintended consequences for some providers of services heavily focused on serving people with complex health care needs, among our most vulnerable residents.
Today's adjustments to the policy means that those risks have been addressed while the government proceeds with a process of reviewing the ACFI and the whole assessment process, in consultation with the sector.
Ian Yates said in relation to the 2016-17 budget and the measures I handed down in that budget:
It takes courage and leadership …
… … …
This is good news for the increasing number of older Australians who need the support of aged care services, and their families.
We know how to run a strong economy. We know how to get the budget back into balance, which is exactly what we've been doing. We know how you fund the essential services, like aged care, that are necessary. You do it by running a stronger economy.
Dr Leigh interjecting—
Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The Leader of the Opposition, the shadow Treasurer and the entire frontbench of the Labor Party have no plans for a stronger economy. They wouldn't know how to run a stronger economy, or anything else, if their political future depended upon it. You cannot trust Labor with the economy. They want to tax it into complete obliteration. When you do that, you can't afford aged-care services. This government is delivering, year on year, higher funding for aged-care services, and we're pleased to continue to support it with a strong budget and a strong economy.
Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
For members who are interjecting, I refer them to my comments of last week. I'm not going to endure continual interjections. For those who have been ejected, you won't be warned. You're not going to disrupt question time for those viewing it and for those who have taken the trouble to come along and watch it.
2:04 pm
Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister please outline to the House why the government is establishing a royal commission into aged-care safety and quality? How will the royal commission help us stand alongside senior Australians?
Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I thank the member for Petrie for his question and his passionate concern about the welfare of senior Australians in his community in the electorate of Petrie and all around the country. Our government is standing together with senior Australians to protect their choices for a longer life and how they can support themselves in a longer life and have the availability of the services they need to ensure the quality of their life in their senior years. Our government is standing with senior Australians to protect them, to protect their safety—their personal safety—and the care that is being provided to them and to remain engaged in our community, whether it's through the continued increased support for in-home aged-care places or our support for other services within residential aged care.
The decision that Australians make about loved ones going into residential aged care is one of the hardest decisions that they make. I know that all members of this House would understand that. You are placed in a position of trust by your loved one at their moment of greatest fragility and vulnerability, and every single Australian deserves to have the confidence that the system into which they are placing their loved ones is up to standard. Over the course of the last few years, we have increased not only the funding support for aged care but the compliance and policing resources into aged care, and what that has revealed is a disturbing and alarming increase in the level of risk of noncompliance and substandard care. That is not something that we can allow to continue. We have put additional resources in, but it requires the additional work of a royal commission into the aged-care sector, both into residential aged care and in-home care services, including residential aged care for younger Australians living with a disability. That work that has already been done has shown that the problem could be very widespread, not just in for-profit or not-for-profit centres, not just in large centres or smaller centres or in regional and rural centres or those in metropolitan areas. It is very important that we have an independent and clear understanding of the facts upon which future policy can be based.
As I said to the Leader of the Opposition when I spoke to him the night before making the announcement, it is my intention this will provide a basis of continued bipartisanship when it comes to the issue of addressing the aged-care sector. Over eight years, going back to when we were in opposition and the Labor Party was in government, we have supported reforms—not all of which were popular, but we supported them—and we have had some support for the reforms that we have continued. But this royal commission provides the opportunity not to have a superficial understanding of these issues but to have a clear and detailed understanding, which can be the basis for this chamber and the other chamber to work together to ensure that we can deliver on the needs of Australians being cared for in our residential aged-care sector. I don't want to fight about this issue; I want to fix it.
2:08 pm
Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
My question is to the Prime Minister. How can the Prime Minister deny cutting $1.2 billion from aged care when page 101 of Budget Paper No. 2 from his 2016 budget, which bears his own name, states:
The Government will achieve efficiencies of $1.2 billion over four years through changes to the scoring matrix of the Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI) that determines the level of funding paid to aged care providers.
Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
It's quite simple: In the 2016-17 budget, funding for aged care was $17.1 billion. It is increased on average by 6.2 per cent each year up to 2021. In 2017 alone, aged -care spending was estimated to reach $18.6 billion. For the benefit of the member for Sydney, $18.6 billion is higher than $17.1 billion. Over the next four years, it will grow by another $5 billion, to 23.6 billion.
What the member would know is that, when the Labor Party were in government, they also had issues with the estimation of potential demand in the aged-care sector and issues of compliance with allocating the funding and ensuring the funding was spent for the purposes for which it was intended—to recalibrate future growth projections upon which the services would be required. That is a standard budgeting function. It can be dealt with as an underspend in the estimates, as I would know as a former Treasurer, or you can take the decision in the budget and make sure the forward projections are accurate.
Aged-care funding has gone up by a billion dollars and more every year under this government. They're the facts. This is why I want a royal commission into this area. We should not be making decisions based on the political agendas of those opposite or in other places; we should be making decisions based on the facts. The Australian people know that the Labor Party do not tell the truth at elections about services provided to senior Australians.
Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
They went to the last election and didn't tell the Australian people the truth about Medicare services. They told them blatant untruths. The Australian people know they cannot trust what the Labor Party tells them about what the government is doing. By contrast, the Australian people can trust this government because we know how to run a stronger economy to pay for it and we do the things that we believe in.