Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Seniors) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Why does the Prime Minister boast about a list of more than 15 announcements but not mention his biggest contribution to aged care—that is, his $1.7 billion cut which left aged-care residents more vulnerable to the deadly COVID-19 virus?

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

Again the Labor Party continue to make these assertions. Even ABC Fact Check have ruled against them on these things, as they did before the last election. At the last election, the ALP supported the government's policies when it came to in-home aged care. Despite having policies that would see $387 billion in higher revenue, from their higher taxes, how much were they able to put aside from that $387 billion to support more in-home aged-care places? The answer to that is nothing, absolutely nothing.

By contrast, we put forward a plan for 10,000 additional in-home aged-care places. Not only have we delivered on that, but we went further than that, with a further 10,000 places and a further 6,000 places beyond that, continuing to ensure that we are doing everything we can to meet the very significant needs that exist in these sectors. When I say 'these sectors', I mean the in-home aged-care sector and the residential aged-care sector, where our funding goes up more than $1 billion every year.

These are just statements of fact. These are things that the government has done. We understand as a government that there is much more to be done. We understand that the mountain we are seeking to climb when it comes to dealing with the challenges in aged care is significant. We understand, as we have, over each and every year of the past seven years, increased funding by more than $1 billion every year to ensure that we are meeting the challenges in aged care. And there is more to be done, because we still need to close that gap on the needs that are there. We will continue to do that each and every year, because, like everyone in this chamber, we want to ensure that elderly Australians are treated with dignity and with respect and can get the care and support that they seek, whether it's in a private facility, a public facility or a not-for-profit facility. We have backed that up by the significant commitment of resources each and every year of government. We have had the responsibility for these matters.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's actually the Independents' question now. I'll just give the option. That's okay. We can come back to it. I'll just call the member for McKellar. I think that'll make it easier. It might be Bob's question. We'll just go with the flow. He was here yesterday.

Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll do my best impersonation!

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am going to come back because I didn't have notice. Broadcasting might have had notice. I didn't have notice of that, so I'm going to stick to the terms of the agreement. We'll just go to the member for Mackellar.