Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Tony Abbott sees them as an easy target. It does not matter whether we call him Mr Abbott or the Prime Minister. He is attacking the most vulnerable in our community in this budget.

Students and those going to university will not go without being scarred by this budget. These students will leave university and graduate with a second mortgage which will hurt any hope that they have of being able to buy a house and having a housing mortgage. Every student will be hurt. Again, I can assure you that Labor will vote against these measures. While the government is bullying the new crossbench senators to vote for cuts and a tax on families, pensioners, students and jobseekers, Labor's Senate team will work with the crossbench to oppose the budget's unfair cuts.

Before this election, Mr Abbott promised a fair go for families. I do not think those opposite know the meaning of those words. Let us now reflect on the aged-care policy. As you would know, it is an area that I have some responsibility in. It is an area that I know most Australian families have an interest in. Right now, we have an aged baby boomer population entering retirement, so we need to take some serious action. What did we see in this place today from a government, who, when they were last in government and sitting on the government benches, did not have the vision or the fortitude to address the needs, changes and reforms that were needed in aged care? They did not have the foresight or the vision to do that. It was up to the Labor government. When we came in, we developed the Living Longer. Living Better. aged-care policy. We took on the issue that needed to be done.

Senator Bilyk interjecting—

Yes, that is quite right, Senator Bilyk. How many did they have? I cannot recall now. Was it six? Was it eight ministers when they bothered to have a Minister for Aged Care when they were under the Howard government? Now, they do not even have a Minister for Aged Care.

They have a government and a minister who is totally out of touch with aged care. On the last day of sitting before the new Senate, what did we have? An announcement by Senator Fifield in relation to the Dementia Supplement, which has been dumped. What did the people sitting on the government benches do? They tried to blame, yet again, the previous Labor government for an issue that we tried to address, because we understand that not only do we have an ageing population but the rate of people with dementia is increasing exponentially. What did we do in government? We introduced a Dementia Supplement. What did those on the opposite side do? Senator Fifield stood up in the Senate in question time today to announce he is axing the Dementia and Severe Behaviours Supplement, because of a larger than expected uptake of the supplement, and he tried to blame Labor for this situation. The aged-care sector and the minister's department knew this was an issue late last year and had every opportunity to act before it reached this level and before the budget was announced. What did he do? He did nothing. He was sitting back, waiting to see whether he should take his head out of the sand, just as they did under the Howard government when they failed to do the heavy lifting when it came to aged care. Senator Fifield had the audacity to claim the supplement had been bad policy when he had spent the previous nine months avoiding the issue and doing nothing. Why was he doing nothing? Because he has no plans for aged care.

They have no plans when it comes to education. They have no plans when it comes to real investment in infrastructure. The only plan that they have is to raise taxes and to cut funding. We know that, in aged care, they already took the $1.1 billion away from those who work in the sector and from those that do the heavy lifting day in, day out by looking after older Australians. Our senior citizens deserve better from this government. What they really need is a minister for ageing, because it is quite blatantly obvious that those that have the responsibility currently for aged care do not have the vision, the strength or the convictions to ensure that the aged-care sector goes forward. They have no answers or vision for those challenges facing that sector going forward over the next 20 and 30 years. They do not consult with the sector, because, if they did, they would not know better. Those people that are suffering from dementia, those people who happen to look after them and those families deserve better from this government. (Time expired)