Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The truth is that, when Labor came into government, we inherited an aged-care system that was in crisis. If you're talking about a crisis that people are experiencing, yes, there's still a lot more to be done. To say the government doesn't recognise that there's more to be done is untruthful. This is because of the crisis that we inherited from those opposite, who were in government for nine years. I didn't see any tears from the Greens during that time, attacking the Liberal coalition government then, because now they're good buddies. What did we see? We saw a failed government who were so bad in this sector that they had to call a royal commission into their own failings.

So, when the Albanese Labor government came into office, the aged-care sector, as I said, had been underfunded for a decade and was overstretched and plagued by long waiting lists. Families were anxious, workers were leaving the sector and older Australians were simply not getting the care that they needed. Now, they knew during that period of time, because they had five—five—failed aged-care ministers, and not one of them was really interested in the portfolio that they had. And, although we've had a contribution by Senator Colbeck from the other side, I think it's really interesting that he is actually paying more attention to this portfolio now than when he was the minister for aged care, because he put sporting events over older Australians during a time of absolute crisis. This was the Liberal government under which there was a royal commission and the title of its report was Neglect. That's when this country had an aged-care crisis. So let's be quite truthful.

Now of course we would like to deliver more home-care packages faster. What we have done is to invest in the workforce—something that they neglected. And still, when we put that legislation through this parliament, they didn't support it. So the crocodile tears don't work—not in this chamber, where people on this side have been advocating for and supporting this sector, because of older Australians and what they've contributed to their country and also because we've had parents and relatives go through the system. But what we have to do is be truthful. Just coming along and working on one piece of legislation doesn't mean you're an expert and that nothing happened when you were in government. We will not allow you to get away with that.

Right now, there are 2,000 new packages being allocated every single week, and, for every older Australian who is assessed as high priority, the wait time is just one month. From 1 November, when the Support at Home program begins, we will make available 83,000 new home-care places in the very first year. That's a major expansion in services—not the neglect of Senator Colbeck and that government.

Now, the Albanese government acknowledges, as I said, that wait times for aged-care assessments are longer than we would like, and we don't shy away from that. But the system is complex, and it's changing for the better. The royal commission called for one single streamlined assessment process for older Australians, so that they don't have to go through repeated assessments as their needs evolve. Labor is delivering that reform. Last year, more than 521,000 assessments were completed, and wait times are already falling. The median time for an assessment was 30 days in the June quarter and dropped to 25 days in July. That is progress in the right direction.

The government wants a system that cares for senior Australians, and it wants workers who are there because they want to be there and are being paid an appropriate wage. So to those who want to bring motions like this before the chamber, where they want to rewrite history, I say: bring it on, because the truth is there in the figures. People, unfortunately, have always died waiting for aged-care packages and, unfortunately, even waiting to get into residential care. But don't use those people for your political games, which is what you're trying to do now. We know, and so do the Australian people, that the system was broken under the Liberal coalition—that's the fact. Otherwise, why did you call a royal commission into your own failings? Because you knew you had failed older Australians and they— (Time expired)