Corinne Mulholland (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers to questions from the opposition and I'll start with the answers to questions from Senator Ruston on aged care. What we saw in question time today, in terms of aged care, could only be described as a little bit of a rewriting of history in this place by the opposition. What we know is that the opposition had a decade in government to do something about aged care and home-care packages, and what we saw under that government was hundreds of thousands of older Australians waiting—some dying—on a waiting list to get a home-care package delivered. Those opposite turned their backs on older Australians. The Liberals and the National Party had nine budgets to do something about aged care and home-care packages, and they did nothing. They took no action on the royal commission's initial report in 2019 and no action on the royal commission's report in 2021. It took a Labor government to get elected in 2022 to deliver real outcomes and real actions for the sector. So for Senator Ruston and the opposition to come into this place new converts to the need to take action on aged care having ignored the issue while they were in government is a bit cheeky, isn't it?

I'll now turn to home-care packages. Cheekiness aside, the government has been pleased to get on with the job of reforming aged care. It's what Australians expect of us, it's what Australians voted for and it's exactly what they will get—a government that will work, not whinge. We are pleased that this government has been able to reach agreement to ensure that the aged-care bill can pass the Senate. This bill is vital to delivering the new Aged Care Act and the Support at Home program. The new program will allow older Australians to live at home for longer with support. We know that's exactly what they want to do. I'm pleased that the government will fast-track 20,000 home-care packages over the next eight weeks for older Australians, and a further 63,000 packages will be allocated from 1 November. I'm pleased that we could achieve this with bipartisan support so these packages can flow to older Australians. It will deliver better support for older Australians to receive the care that they need to live a full and enjoyable life for longer at home, which is what we know they want.

Now I'll go to the energy transition raised by my good comrade from Queensland Senator Canavan. I'm always impressed by his ability to come into this place and maintain the rage against the energy transition. We saw Senator Canavan and his colleagues at the LNP convention in Queensland recently falling over themselves to vote against their party's own commitment on net zero and, in turn, they undermined the Leader of the Opposition and her position on net zero. But from what we heard from reports on the Midwinter Ball I don't think there's a whole lot of love lost in that relationship at the moment. What we heard from the Leader of the Opposition is that dealing with the National Party is a lot like dealing with fundamentalists.