MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Dr REID (Robertson) (15:51): I rise to oppose this MPI on so many fronts. I want to call it out for what it is: a shabby, cynical little stunt from a Liberal Party trying to crawl out from under the wreckage that they created. For those opposite to come into this chamber and lecture Labor on older Australians is not just hypocrisy; it is gall on stilts.
They had years in government yet ignored all the warnings, letting families fight through a broken system and leaving older Australians waiting, worrying and often, heartbreakingly, begging for the dignity that they deserve. And what did those opposite do? They sat on their hands while aged-care services buckled, and that was even with access to the departments, access to the budget and access to the cabinet table.
There were the warnings and the royal commission. They had the power and every opportunity to act. But now, in opposition, this Liberal Party slithers back into this chamber, draped in concern, pretending that they are the champions for older Australians.
Please just spare us the performance. This MPI is not about older Australians. It is about the Liberal Party trying to torch the evidence before anyone reads the file.
They want the country to forget who was in charge when they were in government. They want aged-care workers to forget who undervalued them. They want families to forget who let the system decay.
They want older Australians to forget who looked the other way. But Australians aren't fools. The Liberals come in here with clean speeches and dirty fingerprints.
They did not just discover compassion here today. No, what they discovered was opposition. And now, apparently, after years of neglect, they found a conscience—conveniently located somewhere between a press release and a media opportunity.
As a doctor, I know a bad handover when I see it, and I'm seeing one right now. The Liberal Party handed over an aged-care system in distress—understaffed, underpaid, neglected and unstable. And now they want to blame the treating team for starting the resuscitation.
That is not leadership or concern; that is political cowardice dressed up in a cheap suit. Under this prime minister and under this minister for aged care, this Labor government is doing the work that those opposite were too weak, too lazy and too divided to do, and we are delivering a rights based aged care act, putting dignity, safety and respect at the centre of aged care.
We are delivering support at home so older Australians can stay independent, supported and connected in their own homes, and we are backing aged care workers with real wage increases, because you cannot fix aged care while treating the people who provide it like an afterthought. We are strengthening Medicare, making urgent care centres permanent and making medications cheaper, and we're also investing in hospitals, all of which our older Australians access.
This is what governing looks like. What the coalition and One Nation are offering is heckling from the wreckage. They had the power and wasted it.
They had the responsibility and they ran from it. They had the time and they squandered it. Older Australians on the Central Coast and right across this country deserved better.
What they don't deserve is to be dragged into what we've all witnessed here today, this grubby, little memory-loss exercise of the Liberals, the Nationals and One Nation. This MPI should be rejected for exactly what it is. It is a cynical stunt from a Liberal opposition with, from what I can see, no plan, no shame and—what's more—no moral authority.