QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS

Senator O'NEILL (New South Wales) (15:47): I rise to respond to that contribution and to talk about the reality of aged care and the fact that we do, proudly, have a larger number of ageing Australians in our country. That presents a particular challenge to all governments. And I do know that in previous governments, under leadership not of the Labor kind, this challenge went unmet for a very long period of time.

In fact, it was so unmet that there was the necessity for a royal commission into aged care. And the interim report for that commission was shorthanded in its very title, which was the term Neglect. And that can happen in governments, when people don't pay attention to things, but what we're talking about here is a range of questions that are accusatory, inflammatory, instituted to create drama, offence and anxiety.

That doesn't help anything or anyone. The commissioner, in response to the challenge of what was left by the coalition's failure to see the problem and do anything about it, described it as 'an underpaid, undervalued and insufficiently trained workforce'. Commissioner Lynelle Briggs found that the former government's main consideration was what was the minimum commitment they could get away with.

Well, we are in a vastly different place to that. But that doesn't mean that everything's hunky dory. We are not shying away from the fact that there is a massive policy challenge for Australia to face to meet the needs of our ageing Australians.

I put on the record again Senator Wong's words: 'It is a matter of sadness that people in this country, under both governments, have not been able to receive care in time.' But Senator Wong made it very clear that the minister and the government are working hard to ensure that we provide more places, that we reduce wait times and that we respond to that reality of our ageing population.

We understand it's about people—it's not about politics; it's about people—and that is why the Labor government is investing $3.7 billion in the package that we've put in to make home care more affordable for Australians. We're also investing $47 billion in aged care this year, which is the largest investment in the nation's history. The challenge of making a system work perfectly for the Australian people is a challenge that every government faces, and no government gets it a hundred per cent right all of the time.

But we are not neglecting ageing Australians. We are working hard, investing Australians' money for ageing Australians to make sure that they can get the services that they need to live in their retirement and in their final years with a dignity that we believe they absolutely deserve. We're rebuilding this new system.

We had to introduce a new act. We had to strengthen the home-care system. We've delivered record pay rises so that there are people to come and give support to people who receive these packages, and we're investing in record infrastructure all across this country.

We support care at home. We are working to make sure that Australians who want to live their life and get on with it, who want to be able to do that at home, get the care that they need when they need it. (Time expired)