Andrew McLachlan (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

The motion that was moved by my good friend Senator Scarr was to take note of all the answers to coalition questions, and the first answer on which I wish to address some comments to the chamber was in relation to aged care; it was the question asked by Senator Ruston and responded to by Senator McAllister. Senator McAllister made mention that she enjoyed—I'm fairly sure the verb was 'enjoy', but she acknowledged, at least—the bipartisan approach to the aged-care legislation that has entered this chamber and been debated today. Can I also congratulate her on the excellent way she has led and navigated the passage of the bill.

I'm taking a slightly different approach to take note—raising the standard!

It reminds me, I was thinking, of one of my favourite poems, and Robert Frost is often quoted: 'The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.' As to aged care, I always think that any society is judged by the way it looks after its elderly and those that are disabled. We have enormous challenges, with an ageing population, to ensure that they are looked after in the manner that they should be, and it is an excellent focus—that we are now funding as many people as we can to stay in their homes. For one, it releases the pressure on aged-care facilities, but also it allows them—if you ask any person who is elderly, the vast majority will say that they wish—to live their remaining years at home.

As a result of this political process, or the journey of the bill through the Senate, what we have achieved is: 83,000 home-care places have been delivered, which we'd been promised, including 40,000 of these places before the end of the year and 20,000 right now. So I also extend congratulations on her efforts and accomplishments to Senator Anne Ruston, my fellow senator from South Australia, who has prosecuted this bill and the sector unrelentingly.

I would like to address some comments to my other good friend Senator Richard Colbeck. I know that he came under intense scrutiny as a minister of the Morrison government, but he did set up the structures post the royal commission upon which the current government is building. His efforts in this sector should be acknowledged, and his legacy will be looked upon favourably as the years progress. He enhanced safety and accountability through initiatives. He had workforce initiatives. He grew the funding and the layers of accountability of the sector. And one of the happy consequences of that is that the current government can build upon those achievements.

In the remaining time available to me, I will turn my comments to the question from Senator Canavan to Senator Ayres. Now, I am one of those senators who are not fearful of targets; I also believe in the rollout of renewables, as long as they have social licence. I'd reflect on the exchange that occurred in the chamber between the questioner and the minister answering by saying that a new form of industrialisation is not going to be easy. There are going to be many trade-offs. But we can't live in denial that we have to seek out a renewable future, and it's going to involve a different set of policy settings, but also great understanding of the impact on communities.

Question agreed to.