MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Ms MILLER-FROST (Boothby) (16:11): While we listen to those opposite try to throw blame around and cynically, desperately, try to claw back some votes, we should turn to an independent arbiter as to why the aged-care system is where it is right now. The independent aged-care royal commission called it when they released their interim report entitled Neglect in 2019, under those opposite.
It's a condemnation of those opposite. They left a mess. They left a disaster.
But now, shamelessly, they play politics and spread misinformation rather than help us fix the problem. The Albanese Labor government is the government for older Australians. We are for older Australians living in dignity and security.
We are for older Australians being able to access the care they need when they need it. This government recognises the magnitude of the task before us. The demographics are not in our favour.
Next year, 90,000 additional Australians will turn 80; 15 years ago that number was 15,000. This has an impact on the service offerings we need to provide, specifically in aged care and health. It means that we need to build an aged-care home every three days for the next 20 years in order to accommodate a rapidly growing older population and deal with the backlog of no beds built over the last decade.
But the Albanese Labor government has a plan that will tackle the issues head on and provide older Australians with the quality of care that they need and they deserve, and that will be sustainable for generations to come. That's why we're putting $47 billion in the coming year into expanding and improving the provision of aged-care services in Australia. This means 5,000 more beds year on year.
It will mean being able to build and maintain quality residential accommodation. It will mean making Support at Home fairer and more affordable and making assessments faster and wait times shorter. In the last two quarters we processed 260,000 assessments.
More recently, we announced that we will strengthen consumer protections for those on Support at Home by empowering the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to be able to order refunds for overcharged services and to be able to report publicly on investigations and enforcement actions; by producing each quarter a national summary of Support at Home prices in order that participants and their families can compare prices across providers; by monitoring prices of personal care as they transition into the clinical care category, on top of the free showering, dressing, continence support and clinical services already provided; by limiting increases to no more than twice per year; by working with the Older Persons Advocacy Network, Council of the Ageing, Ageing Australia and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to establish clear and enforceable definitional guidelines around what constitutes 'reasonable' pricing.
The government's plan to expand and improve aged-care services in Australia will also mean an expansion of end-of-life pathway, providing dignified care to older Australians in their final months. It will mean 20 additional specialist dementia care program units and the expansion of the Hospital to Aged Care Dementia Support Program, providing crucial transition support for older Australians going from hospital into residential care.
The Albanese Labor government's plan means more aged-care beds, more packages and better care. The Albanese Labor government is for older Australians. The growth of our older population is rapidly outpacing our capacity to provide crucial supports and services, and, unfortunately, we inherited a service system in crisis.
The system risks collapsing under its own weight. We are confronted with this reality and we are confronting the reality with a plan—a plan that will ensure that every older Australian can get affordable and timely access to the quality care they need and deserve, and a plan that will improve and expand the system to make it fit for purpose and sustainable well into the foreseeable future.
Labor have always stood for older Australians, and we will continue to stand for older Australians. When you think about the Liberal-National party commitment to older people, just remember that one word: neglect.