Senator DEAN SMITH (Western Australia—Chief Government Whip in the Senate) (17:37): I'm a little delighted to come into the chamber this afternoon to talk on this matter of public importance—a little delighted because I'm surprised that Labor continues to proffer this gross mistruth that there has been a reduction in government spending in aged care—just untrue. And I'm not going to ask you to believe me; I'm going to ask you to believe the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and I'll come to that in a moment. The second reason I'm only a little delighted to come into the chamber is it seems that Labor senators are keen to ignore the coalition government's very strong record when it comes to delivering on aged-care achievements. To start, let me provide a quick overview before I demonstrate why the ABC doesn't believe what Labor says this afternoon about aged-care funding. At a higher level, let me put on the record that since the coalition government was elected aged-care spending has increased every single year. It's increased on average by $1 billion of extra support for older Australians each year. Aged-care funding continues to grow, with the government investing an additional $7 billion in aged care over five years. The Morrison government is delivering record investment across the aged-care system over the forward estimates. Funding has increased from just $13.3 billion in 2012-13, Labor's last year in office, to $21.7 billion in 2019-20, to an estimated $25.4 billion in 2022-23. Under our plan aged-care funding will almost double from what it was in the last year under Labor. Just as importantly, when Labor had an opportunity in the lead-up to the 18 May federal election, what did they say about aged care? The country was looking at Labor and it was looking at the coalition. Many Australians would have been thinking about the various policies on offer from the coalition, from Labor and from other parties. What did Labor say to Australian electors in the lead-up to the 18 May federal election? When the whole country was looking at Labor to understand what its aged-care priorities were, Labor provided no additional funding in its costings for home care places or any additional funding for aged-care quality, workforce or residential aged care. When the whole country was preparing to go to the ballot box and was thinking about a variety of issues and the various policy positions of Labor and the coalition, you would have thought that would have been a good time for Senator Brown from Tasmania or Senator Ciccone from Victoria to put on the public record what their position was with regard to additional aged-care funding, but they provided nothing. Let's have a quick look at what the ABC said when it examined for itself, last year in September, claims from Bill Shorten that the coalition was cutting aged-care spending. Senator Brown, I know you're not supposed to interject but on this occasion we might be able to excuse you. What did ABC Fact Check say about Bill Shorten's comments? 'Misleading' is what ABC Fact Check said. The claim from Bill Shorten was, it said: Australia's aged care sector has come under close scrutiny in recent weeks following concerns that some providers have placed profit before the welfare of the elderly. We heard that in Senator Smith's contribution—Senator Smith from South Australia, not Senator Smith from Western Australia. The ABC went on to say that this is what Bill Shorten, the former Leader of the Opposition, said in the House of Representatives: Why, when he was treasurer, in his first budget, did the now Prime Minister cut $1.2 billion from aged care? How did cutting $1.2 billion from aged care support the dignity of vulnerable older Australians? That's what Bill Shorten said to Scott Morrison, who, in September last year, was Prime Minister. What did ABC Fact Check say? It said: In making his claim, Mr Shorten specifically referred to Mr Morrison's first budget as treasurer, which was for 2016-17. As previously mentioned— in the article— that year the government announced $1.2 billion of "efficiencies" (partly offset by more money in the budget for regional aged care and information services). That announcement followed a $2.5 billion increase in the expected cost of the Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI), the main Commonwealth funding mechanism to subsidise aged care service providers, since the budget update just six months earlier. According to Budget Paper No. 2 (page 101)— Senator Brown, that's Budget Paper No. 2 page 101— "This measure is part of the Government's response to the continued higher than expected growth in ACFI expenditure, which has increased by a further $2.5 billion over the forward estimates since the 2015-16 MYEFO … That doesn't sound like a cut in aged-care spending. That doesn't sound like one, and it's not one. 'Misleading' is how the comments of the then Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten have been characterised. We heard nothing about that in the contributions of Labor senators this afternoon. If we are going to have a debate about aged care in our country, then it should at least be an honest one and it should at least be a factual one. The challenge is for Labor to focus on the facts, present the real story and then offer up their solution. But what we've heard this afternoon is a false story not based on facts, and we haven't heard any solutions. In contributions from others this afternoon, it's also been suggested that the government has got no achievements to demonstrate in the aged-care policy area. They say, 'Oh, you've had so many ministers, isn't that terrible.' Well, actually, the former minister just became a cabinet minister and is the Minister for Indigenous Affairs. That demonstrates competency, not incompetency. So let me just talk about the 22 achievements that the coalition government can lay claim to. I suspect that, in the next two minutes, I won't have the opportunity to get through all 22, but Senator Brown, you're welcome to come and take my speaking points. If I can only get to 10 or 12, you're welcome to take the other 10! Where should we start? Let's start at the top. Achievement No. 1: the coalition has invested $2.2 billion since the 2018-19 budget into home care packages to support more Australians to remain living in their own homes for longer. That is a good outcome. That is a good achievement. That is necessary. That is what the Australian community is telling us. There's been a 25 per cent increase in access to home care packages in just one year. Achievement No. 2: the coalition has released 14,275 new residential care places, including 13,500 residential places and 775 short-term restorative care places. That is achievement. That is success. That is delivering on the aged-care needs for older Australians. Achievement No. 3: the coalition has allocated $60 million worth of capital grants for infrastructure works in rural and remote areas. As a regional senator, this is critical. Aged-care homes across regional areas in our country do need more support in order to build the infrastructure to support the provision of aged-care services. If you want to have a really important debate about aged care, if you really want to think about the future of aged care and have a proper policy discussion about what the urgency is and what really needs to be done, then it's absolutely about how we make sure that older Australians living in rural and remote areas across our country can stay close to their families and get aged-care support in those rural and remote areas. That is an important policy discussion. I haven't heard that from anyone on Labor's side yet. Achievement No. 4: the coalition has established the new independent Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. Achievement No. 5: the coalition has implemented new consumer focused Aged Care Quality Standards arrangements. Achievement No. 6: the coalition has put in place a new single Charter of Aged Care Rights, covering 14 fundamental protections for all aged-care programs for safe, quality care to independents. That's six achievements of at least 22. I could go on— (Time expired)