Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I understand that those opposite are a bit touchy about their record, and they should be. It is not good. It was pretty bad. I will give a little narrative of what it was like for the aged-care sector under the Howard government. In the 12 years of the Howard government, aged-care services were neglected. They did not address workforce and bed shortages. They presided over scandals involving bed licences and incidents of poor standards of care. Aged-care bed shortages worsened and waiting times for care lengthened under John Howard. We had fewer beds per capita than we had in 1996. In addition, they had a huge turnover of ministers for ageing, who mismanaged the portfolio. It was a revolving door.