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

Senator Ruston, I simply don't accept that the government has withheld information. We have been engaged in a series of public discussions, in committee hearings and in the chamber, about the approach that we are taking to the reform of the aged-care sector. I think everyone in this chamber acknowledges the significance of that reform. We were very pleased to work with the opposition to bring the reforms through in the last term, and I think that is because there is a commitment here to improve outcomes for older Australians.

These issues have been canvassed through a legislative inquiry, which some of the senators here chose to participate in. They have been canvassed, additionally, through a references inquiry, which had its first hearing on Friday. We have had debates during various parts of the program in the Senate and, as I understand it, in the other place, and we have had questions asked in question time. This has been a very public debate. And the government's every purpose in reforming the aged-care system is to make sure that we produce better outcomes for older Australians. I will add that it builds on the work that was done over the last term to improve the performance of the system and the quality of care that's available to people.

A lot of work was done in the last term that, frankly, could have been done in the previous decade when the Liberal Party and their coalition partner, the Nationals, were in power. But it wasn't done, so a great deal of work had to be done over the last term to get us to this point. It included a $5.6 billion reform package that reformed care minutes to deliver registered nurses onsite in aged care more than 99 per cent of the time, which allowed more direct care to over 250,000 older people in aged-care homes. We have invested $17.7 billion in support of award wage increases for aged-care workers so that we have the aged-care workforce ready to implement the improvements in quality that older Australians rightly expect.

In December 2023, only 54 per cent of aged-care homes had an overall star rating of four or five stars. Now, 74 per cent of aged-care homes have such a rating. And now, under the leadership of Minister Rae in the other place, we are committed to implementing the Aged Care Act. As I think senators understand, it will expand aged-care support to hundreds of thousands of older Australians, it'll lift quality and it will lift the range of aged-care services that older Australians can access in their final years of life, and that is no less than they deserve.