Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Did the Prime Minister's decision to cut $1.7 billion from aged care leave aged-care homes better or worse prepared for the pandemic?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Once again the Leader of the Opposition comes to the dispatch box and asserts things that are simply not true. It's not just me saying that. The Labor Party have made these allegations before. In fact, the previous Leader of the Opposition made the same allegations, about a matter involving $1.2 billion, and, of all sources to actually agree with the government—it may come as some surprise—ABC Fact Check found that to be very 'misleading'. I table that for the benefit of the House.

What I can advise the Leader of the Opposition about is that we've invested $3 billion, since the 2018-19 budget, into home care packages, to support more Australians living in their homes for longer. We've released 14,275 new residential care places, including 13½ thousand residential places and 775 short-term restorative care places. We're investing $5.3 billion, from 1 July to June 2022, for existing Commonwealth Home Support Program service providers, to ensure continuity of in-home support services for over 840,000 across Australia. We've invested $21.9 million for My Aged Care operating costs. We've provided a $320 million boost to residential care subsidies. We've given providers operating residential and home care access to independent business advisory services. We've provided almost $50 million for a Business Improvement Fund to assist residential aged-care providers in financial difficulty, including prioritisation for those in regional, rural and remote areas and affected by bushfires. Applications opened for the BIF on 31 March 2020. We've provided an ongoing 30 per cent increase to the viability supplement to support services in rural and remote Australia. We've provided an ongoing 30 per cent increase to the homelessness supplement. We've established a new independent Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. We've implemented new consumer based aged-care quality standards. We've introduced a new National Aged Care Mandatory Quality Indicator Program. And we've committed over $1 billion to aged-care support to ensure that, in response to the outbreak of coronavirus in this country, Australia's record stands in a position that other nations have not even approached.

That's not to say there have not been failings. Of course there have. There have been four cases, in four facilities in this country, where the outcomes have been completely and totally unacceptable. There have been a total of 16 cases overall where we've had a significant impact. But, in 97 per cent of the aged-care facilities in this country, there has not been a single resident infection.