Senator McMAHON (Northern Territory) (15:15): I rise to take note of answers Minister Cormann provided to Senator Di Natale regarding fires, firefighting— The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator McMahon, the opposition determines who we are taking note of—that is, we are taking note of questions to Senator Colbeck from Senators Keneally, Smith and O'Neill—so it's on the matter of aged care. Senator McMAHON: Okay. Thank you. Aged care is a topic that's extremely important to this government. We know that we have a lot of older Australians who rely on us. We have an ageing population. We're very well aware of that. We have commitments to delivering for care for the elderly. We're delivering record investment over the forward estimates, from $13.3 billion in 2012-13 under Labor and growing to $21.7 billion in 2019-20, and that will grow to an estimated $25.4 billion in 2022-23. These are quite high figures. This does not show that we are negating our responsibility to the aged-care sector. This, in fact, shows a great deal of concern by this government to make sure we're meeting our obligations to older Australians. It's, on average, $1.2 billion of extra support for older Australians each year over the forward estimates. It's not unsubstantial: $1.2 billion. Making improvements to aged care for all senior Australians continues to be one of this government's key priorities. That's why the Prime Minister called the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, because we care and we place a high degree of value on this system. On the one hand, we're committed to providing senior Australians with support to live in their own homes for longer. New home-care packages have increased from 60,308 under Labor in 2012-13 to 125,119 in 2018 and are projected to reach 157,154 in 2022-23. That's a massive increase that this government has undertaken to provide. Again, that's not something that's unsubstantial. Labor, on the other hand, at the election, provided no additional funding in their costings for home-care places, yet they are happy to sit there and criticise our performance and the places that we are providing. Labor committed no additional funding for the quality of aged care, the workforce or residential aged care—absolutely nothing additional—yet we have a very strong commitment in this area. Recent achievements that we have undertaken include residential funding reform. This government is trialling a new aged-care funding instrument which will emphasise placing the safety and wellbeing of residents above financial and business priorities. Again, that doesn't sound like we don't care or we're not committed. The opposition attack us on home-care packages, yet this government has invested $2.2 billion to address the waiting list for home-care packages. Again, it's not like we're not listening or not acting. There are new aged-care quality standards and a charter of aged-care rights. The standards, which commenced on 1 July 2019, apply to all aged-care services, including residential home care, flexible care and services provided in aged-care facilities. The standards focus on quality outcomes for the consumer, rather than provider processes. The charter of rights provides the same rights to all consumers, regardless of the type of aged-care funding or service they receive—again, an initiative and a priority of this government. We offer streamlined assessments. The government has committed $14.8 million over two years— (Time expired)