Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

What we saw with that contribution is what we see typically from this Liberal government—a denial of the reality facing Australians. Senator Macdonald stood here today and started talking about lies. We are talking about 108,000 Australians today. Some of them might be related to you. Many of them are in the area where I live on the Central Coast—750 of them being very poorly represented by the member for Robertson, Lucy Wicks. They need a change of government to address the fact that 108,000 Australians—on the figures provided by this government's health department—are waiting for an aged-care package. Do you know what that means? It means 108,000 people today are waiting for somebody to come and give them a hand, maybe to have a shower; to help them clean the linen on their bed; to take them to the shops. There are 54,000 Australians on that list who have absolutely nothing. Yet this government is pretending that they are the new friend of the aged.

We know that this is a big con job because last week, not surprisingly, the new Prime Minister, Mr Morrison—if you can keep up with the quick changes that are going on over there—decided that he needed to have a break from the bad image that the Liberals have. So he has decided, 'There is going to be a Four Corners report out on Monday. What can I do to keep those aged people on my side?' So he has decided to call a royal commission, ignoring the fact that this government is sitting on 13 reports—as they sit there in question time, ignoring the issue every single day when they come here—13 reports that tell us they have to invest properly in health and particularly in aged care places. Prime Minister Morrison wants to blame Tony Abbott and say, 'Yes, he wasn't such a great leader. Turnbull has gone. I'm so much better; I'm going to look after aged Australians.' But he can't deny the fact that he is the uniting force behind those two former prime ministers. He was the Treasurer who took $1.2 billion out of aged care. It's not a big shock to the rest of us who live in the real world, who understand what it means when you don't get somebody to come and help you with a shower, who understand what it means when your ill health in the aged period of your life turns into dementia, and after having worked your whole life you're sitting on a waiting list for two years to get a response.

The insult that this government adds to the injuries that they've already inflicted is that they've played a game where they've pulled money out of aged care, against some people in residential aged care, and they created 14,000 places for aged care packages at home. I'm all for supporting the people who want to live at home. I'm all for people getting the care that they need. But don't play the game of pitting one part of the sector against the other. That's what they did. They did the little double shuffle—pulling the money from here and giving it over there. That's no money going into the sector at all. Remember, $1.2 billion in their budget was what they took out of aged care, and now they want to pretend that they're friends of the sector.

You've seen the media responses and the stories that we have heard today. When this royal commission kicks off, which Labor has been calling for for some time, we'll hear horrendous stories. The reality is that we've got level 3 and level 4 care packages that are needed right now today. If this government thinks that as opposition we are going to sit back and let them say, 'It's all okay. We're going to a royal commission'—it's not okay. It's not enough, because today there are 108,000 people waiting for an aged care package. Today there are 54,000 Australians who have absolutely no help coming into their homes, despite the fact that they're trying to stay there. The reality is, sadly, that we have seen the consequences of leaving aged people without care. When it really gets to the pointy end, it means that some Australians will die in their homes. That is just the reality. We talk about politics sometimes like it doesn't matter in our lives, but it matters for these aged people. They should be telling the truth to Australians. Have a royal commission, yes, but do it properly. (Time expired)