Jim Molan (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on aged care. I guess what we've seen over the last couple of days is a very clever mathematical game—a game which was aimed to catch people out and a game which was really a disgrace to those who suffered. We know who has suffered. I certainly extend my deepest sympathy, as I have done before in the Senate, only an hour or so ago. I acknowledge the incredible work those working in the aged-care sector have done for the people that they care for. They face extremely confronting circumstances and they face them every single day.

In a situation where we deny facts or even a reasonable explanation—Senator Polley makes the statement, 'We have seen nothing at all.' I would suggest that she's not looking. The facts are there to be seen and they are there for everyone who wants to look. When an increase becomes a cut, go for the big lie. We've seen this before. It's a magic approach. We've seen the way Labor considers that an increase to the ABC becomes a cut. It's just a denial of reality. The most important fact in what we're considering here today is that the total aged-care spending under Labor seven years ago was $13.3 billion, compared to $22.6 billion now. You've seen nothing at all, Labor? That's an increase by any stretch of the imagination, and it will continue to increase. It will increase to $25.4 billion in 2022-23. Only the Labor Party could call a billion-dollar-a-year increase a cut.

As one of our previous speakers pointed out, Labor's claims have been disproven by an ABC fact check. It's your ABC. Thank God, I say, Labor is not in power. Their ABC, even if they couldn't take an ideological view on this, would have been propping them up and assisting them in every way, shape or form. Despite Labor's plans for $387 billion in new tax at the election, including a retiree tax, Labor provided no additional funding in their costings for home care places or any additional funding for aged-care workforce quality or mainstream residential aged care. No, they didn't. Labor has remained silent on any commitment to aged care since the election, providing no additional funding. We did.

Suddenly Labor cares. This really shows Labor's hypocrisy on aged care. The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety interim report said, 'it is difficult not to be critical of successive governments' failures to fix the aged care system'. The longstanding problems in aged care are a failure of successive governments, but we have sought to address that failure. When Senator Polley says she's seen nothing at all, she ain't looking. It is a failure we have sought to address by calling a royal commission. We made many advances, but large, systemic changes do not occur overnight.

Many of us have gone through all the packages, all the issues and all the figures, but that will make no impression on the Labor Party at all. I just want to repeat a key fact which I spoke about in the Senate earlier today. That very important point is that during the COVID-19 pandemic no country has been able to avoid outbreaks in residential aged care, or deaths, when there has been widespread community transmission, as there has been in Premier Daniel Andrews's Victoria, and that has been a failure. I reject the assertion that Australia has a high death rate in residential aged care by international comparisons. Senator Polley says she has seen nothing. Senator Polley and the Labor Party have not been looking.

The alleged failure to act was in fact action after action after action. There was a plan, it was implemented and it was fact checked. The closed minds of the opposition and the Greens are on display.