Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Payman for that question on the important issue of aged care across the community. The final report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety told a shocking story of neglect, inaction and a lack of ambition to plan for growing demand in the aged-care sector. It called for urgent action to help a sector that was in crisis. The Labor government recognised that aged-care workers had to be at the foundation of our reform. Aged-care workers are the heart of the system caring for vulnerable older Australians, and that's why the very first piece of legislation introduced by the Albanese government was a bill to require 24/7 nursing, to make sure aged-care residents could get the clinical care they required around the clock.

This positive step forward was met by ridicule and criticism from those opposite, who ran an irresponsible year-long scare campaign that requiring more nurses in aged care would lead to the collapse of the aged-care sector. But 1 July came and went, the sun is still in the sky, and our first set of data for the 24/7 nursing mandate revealed significant improvements. On average, there is a nurse on site 98 per cent of the time, or 23½ hours a day. Eighty-six per cent of all homes that reported data have a nurse 24/7, and the majority of remaining homes are extremely close to meeting the target. Two months on, the data has continued to improve, with 88 per cent of homes now having a registered nurse on site 24/7. The royal commission also recommended mandatory minimum care minutes, which took effect from 1 October. Data collected from when minimum care minutes came into effect show that older Australians are receiving an additional 1.8 million minutes of care every single day under the Albanese government.