Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services) | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. More than 700 people have died of COVID in aged care just this year alone and tens of thousands are not receiving the care they deserve. The Prime Minister cut $1.7 billion from aged care, and he's refused to sack his totally incompetent minister. Why won't the Prime Minister just do his job and fix aged care?

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for her question. In particular, in terms of support for aged care the government has made sure that we have taken a series of steps, firstly, through the pandemic, and, secondly, in terms of systemic reform in response to the royal commission, which the Prime Minister called in response to the tragedy and the travesty which was the Oakden nursing home under the state-run previous public health system in South Australia, under the previous government there as well.

In terms of the actions that have been taken during the course of the pandemic, we have, at this stage, delivered 83.4 per cent of booster coverage to the eligible population, 100 per cent of facilities have had visits and over 300 have had a second visit for boosters—to go back and to encourage. In terms of workforce—

Andrew Wallace (Speaker) | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Hotham!

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) | Link to this | Hansard source

over 82,000 surge positions have been made available. This year, we've had over 50 million units of PPE, which have been provided to our aged-care homes. In addition, that includes 13.9 million rapid antigen tests, which have been in place continuously—continuously—since August of last year and moving forwards. Beyond that, we've also been able to provide now nine million rapid antigen tests to over two million concessional cardholders since this program was begun in January. So all of these elements have come together.

More broadly though, they come against the basis of the largest additional investment in aged care in Australian history—$17.7 billion at last year's budget in response to the royal commission. It's not just the largest investment in aged care in Australian history but the largest response to any royal commission at any time in Australian history, a commission which this Prime Minister called when no others previously had ever done such a thing. And, in particular, amongst that—

Andrew Wallace (Speaker) | Link to this | Hansard source

The Member for Franklin!

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) | Link to this | Hansard source

That includes over $7 billion for home care to provide greater options for people who are staying at home and over $8 billion all up for residential aged care, and that goes both to the quality of care and to the sustainability of that care. In particular, that includes the additional funds for nursing care minutes—200 minutes. That includes the additional funds for ensuring that we are able to have visits from general practitioners. That includes the funds to ensure that there is greater support for the training of the staff to encourage and to thank them. And there is also the $600 million now through four retention bonus payments to support those staff and to encourage them back in. All of these things are coming together, and, although it's been difficult, what we do see is one of the lowest rates of loss of life in the world in aged care, and we thank our staff and honour them for that. (Time expired)