Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This virus, COVID-19, has drastically changed the world we live in and the way we live our lives. But, as a government, we are working to keep Australians safe and to prevent the further spread of COVID-19. We understand that we need to do everything we can to prevent COVID-19 from spreading to vulnerable Australians, and this government is working with aged-care providers and state and territory public health authorities to support arrangements to manage infection control and COVID-19 outbreaks.

This has been an extremely difficult time for Australians, and we offer our deep condolences to those families who have lost loved ones. As a government, we've been building on our response to COVID-19 in residential aged care since January 2020. Since the beginning of the pandemic the federal government has announced funding of more than $1 billion in new measures to respond to the impacts of COVID-19 on aged care. Overall the Morrison government is delivering record investment across the aged-care system over the forward estimates, from $13.3 billion in financial year 2013 under Labor and growing to $21.4 billion last financial year under a coalition government. That is, on average, $1.2 billion of extra support for older Australians each year over the forward estimates.

It's important to note when considering our COVID-19 response, particularly as it pertains to aged care, that we're incorporating learnings from not only our country's own experience of this issue but also the experiences of other countries in order to provide a wider understanding of the virus, its impact on aged care, and effective control measures. We are taking all the advice and using all the information available to us to inform the aged-care response to COVID-19, which has been closely incorporated into the health response to the pandemic and is a critical part of the health pandemic plan. Across the country, 97 per cent of aged-care facilities have not had an outbreak of COVID-19, and we are working incredibly hard to try to keep it that way.

Making improvements to aged care for all senior Australians has always been a priority of the Morrison coalition government, and it continues to be a priority. That is why the Prime Minister called a royal commission into aged-care quality and safety. Our recent track record in improving aged care, including since the royal commission was called, is extensive. Since the 2018-19 budget we've invested $3 billion into home care packages to support more Australians to remain living in their own homes for longer. That's an increase of more than 50,000 home care packages. We've released almost 15,000 new residential care packages, including 13½ thousand residential places and 775 short-term restorative care places. We're investing $5.3 billion from 1 July this year to June 2022 for existing Commonwealth home support program service providers to ensure continuity of in-home support services for more than 800,000 clients across Australia. We've invested $21.9 million for My Aged Care operating costs. We've provided a $320 million boost to residential aged-care subsidies. We've given providers who are operating residential and home care access to independent business advisory services—and so much more. Unfortunately, in this debate I'm not hearing from those on the other side much mention of this great work that this government has done.

Recently the Morrison government announced a scale-up of aged-care support programs in Victoria and across Australia, with an additional $171.5 million. This provides a new funding boost for a new COVID-19 response plan as agreed by national cabinet last week. It demonstrates that we are continually assessing and adapting to this situation, on the basis of the best medical advice, to protect older Australians. Funding will be used to continue current programs for infection control training and surge workforce staff, alongside greater compliance by the aged-care commissioner and coordinated response centres. As I said in my initial remarks, we understand that we need to do everything we can to prevent COVID-19 from spreading to vulnerable Australians, and we are committed to working with aged-care providers and the state and territory authorities to try to get this outbreak under control. (Time expired)