Senator RENNICK (Queensland) (15:17): It is Senator Polley and the Labor opposition who fail to comprehend. The minister himself answered: over 97 per cent of senior Australians waiting for a package at their assessed level have been offered support from the Commonwealth government. That's not difficult to understand. The list of people waiting has gone down by seven per cent in just three months. That's a great effort by the minister. What a great effort. New home care packages have increased from just 60,308 places under Labor in 2012-13. They are now up to 124,000 and by 2022-23 they'll be up to 157,000—an increase of 161 per cent. And why are we not surprised that Labor can't add up here? Because they can't. It's very simple. Since the coalition government was elected, aged-care spending has increased by an average of more than eight per cent each year. That is on average a billion dollars of extra support for older Australians each year that the coalition government has been in power. Further, there is our record on home care. Since 2017-18, the government has announced a release of over 40,000 new home care packages across all levels. This year's budget will deliver an extra 10,000 home care packages to be released across all levels at an investment of $282 million. That is thanks to the strong economic management of the coalition government. This commitment is part of the government's broader record investment in aged care that will deliver an additional $7 billion in funding over the next five years. The release of these packages in recognition of the increasing demand for home care will be in line with the available budget. The government has also announced reductions to the maximum basic daily fee to apply from 1 July 2019. Maximum basic daily fees will reduce by $400 for level 1, $200 for level 2 and $100 for level 3. There has been no change for level 4. Home care packages are key to supporting senior Australians to remain living in their home, yet they do not replace primary care as part of the broader health system, including services accessed via general practices and hospitals. The coalition government has increased health funding to my home state of Queensland by $1.8 billion over the last five years—an average of 12 per cent. The aged-care system has mechanisms to provide support to those in urgent need of home care packages, ensuring that people with high priority can get access to a home care package or other supports when required. As at September this year, based on March data, there were 99,110 people in home care packages. This represents an annual increase of 14,000, or about 17 per cent, since 31 March 2018. The number of people in a high-level—levels 3 and 4—home care package as at March 2019 was around 45,000, which is 22,000 more people, almost 100 per cent more, than there were in March 2017. In 2017-18, 116,843 people accessed a home care package, which means approximately 1.3 people accessed each available package. This reflects those entering and exiting care over time. By 2021-22, over 74,000 high-level home care packages will be available—an increase of 86 per cent on 2017-18 figures. Of the 119,000 people who were waiting for a home care package at their approved level as at 30 June, 2019, 97 per cent had been approved with the opportunity to connect to Commonwealth subsidised aged-care support. Labor must be once bitten, twice shy. They have come into this chamber today pretending to be the friend of senior Australians. They have apparently learnt the very harsh lesson handed to them at the recent unlosable election under the former Leader of the Opposition.