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

Senator Fifield is a man who has no vision for his area of responsibility: aged care. This is a man who came into this chamber on 26 June last year without consulting the aged-care sector and scrapped the dementia supplement. We have been waiting months and months and months for his visionary leadership in aged care. This is why this government is bereft of any ideas, any solutions, any vision for aged care and how we are going to address both the short term and the longer term issues around staffing. Maybe I will have to wait until 26 June 2015 before he graces the Senate chamber with some sort of announcement. Under the previous Labor government we always had a minister for aged care and ageing. We believe that for the ageing issues confronting this country and the rest of the world it is worth having a dedicated minister who has the vision, the policy and the nous to consult with the sector and show leadership. It is not just me and Mr Neumann in the other place who are talking about these issues. These are real concerns that the aged-care sector have in this country about the lack of vision and the lack of commitment from this government and this minister. Maybe I will be wrong. Maybe when the minister is in Hobart on Friday he will make some sort of announcement and demonstrate that he actually does have some commitment to those of our population who are ageing. In the time I have been in this chamber I have learnt not to expect too much from those on the other side. They are a heartless government.