Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Blyth raises a case of a constituent in her electorate, and I thank her for doing so because these stories are always important. I repeat the offer that I made yesterday to Senator Askew that, where there is an individual who is experiencing particular circumstances, including the kind that Senator Blyth raises today, Senator Blyth, like all senators, is of course welcome to raise that directly with Minister Rae. I know he will want to hear about that person's experience.

More broadly, this points to the significance of the reforms that have been legislated through this parliament and are shortly to commence. We owe a great deal to older Australians and we owe them dignity and respect. Our government promised to lift the standard of aged care, and that is what our reforms are doing. And there is more work to do. We've been clear about that. This task is ongoing. But it is important to remember that older Australians will benefit from the steps that have already been taken by the government and the steps that we intend to take as we implement the aged-care reforms.

Over the last three years, we have started to turn around very significant challenges in this sector. We've had to compress a lot of reform into that three-year period because not very much was done in the decade that preceded it. Our government has invested $5.6 billion in a reform package which represents the greatest improvement to aged care in 30 years. We are delivering registered nurses on site in aged care more than 99 per cent of the time and more direct care to over— (Time expired)