Senator CAROL BROWN (Tasmania) (17:47): I stand to address the Morrison government's record of inaction and cuts to aged care over the last six years—cuts that have directly led to the national aged-care system being broken. What we just heard from Senator Dean Smith, Western Australian Liberal, was a very, very lacklustre contribution. In fact, that contribution was essentially a contribution of distraction. Even though he says the federal government have all these achievements—and there's the fact that they just rotate ministers in aged care—he spent at least seven minutes attacking the Labor Party. We have not been in government for six years. They have presided over a royal commission—seriously! Senator Dean Smith: On a point of order: perhaps I was mistaken—I thought you were listening to my contribution! The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Fawcett ): Senator Smith, that is not a point of order. Senator CAROL BROWN: Look, I'm going to have to change my assessment about his contribution to being just sad, sad, sad. It was a very sad contribution, and, look, he's leaving! Of course—I'd leave too because— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order! Senator Brown, you know it's disorderly to draw the attention of the chamber to the fact that another senator is leaving. Continue your speech. You have the call, Senator Brown. Senator CAROL BROWN: I really appreciate your intervention there, Mr Acting Deputy President, because I know that Senator Smith, if he truly wanted to get through all the achievements that he says that the federal government have achieved, would have started with them. But of course he doesn't want to talk about the fact that Prime Minister Morrison was actually the architect of the cuts to aged care. Monday was the anniversary of this government's announcement of a royal commission into aged care. The anniversary is marked by the tragic fact that every part of Australia's aged-care system is in crisis. On Friday, the Morrison government extended the reporting date of the royal commission to November 2020. But we cannot wait. Action needs to be taken. Action needs to be taken now to fix what we know is broken today. But the Liberal government, the coalition government, doesn't even rate aged care as a priority. How do we know this? We know this because the Liberal government is on its fourth aged-care minister in six years. It is such a low priority that the aged-care minister is not considered important enough to be in cabinet, even though there's a royal commission on aged care happening right now. Meanwhile, we know the facts, as Senator Dean Smith likes to highlight, are that 129,000 Australians are waiting for approved home care packages and around 75,000 are waiting without any care at all. The waiting list has grown from 88,000 to 129,000 over the past 18 months alone. This is totally unacceptable. Equally unacceptable is the tragic fact that more than 16,000 people have died waiting for an approved package. The federal government, the coalition government, need to hang their heads in shame. Sixteen thousand people have died waiting. Fourteen thousand have had to enter residential aged care because they can no longer stay at home waiting for care packages, and many older Australians enter emergency departments or the hospital system due to their increasing care needs. For the highest level of care, waiting times are now more than two years. Think about it. Think about your aged parents having to wait for the highest level of care for more than two years. That is what this government has presided over. Think about that. This government needs to be ashamed— (Time expired)