Senator KENEALLY (New South Wales—Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) (15:05): I seek leave to take note of the minister's response. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Leave is granted for up to 10 minutes, Senator Keneally. I understand arrangements have been made. Senator KENEALLY: I move: That the Senate take note of the Minister's response. We want an answer. We in the Labor Party want an answer to this question. Senator Ciccone asked Minister Colbeck a very straightforward question last Tuesday: Minister, how many Australians have died whilst waiting for their home package in the last financial year? Whether by shame or incompetence, the minister has failed to provide this chamber with an answer. I wrote to the minister yesterday asking him to provide a response to the chamber after question time. We heard nothing from the minister yesterday and his silence, his lack of an answer here today, has necessitated this action. I note that since last Tuesday a number of government ministers have come to this place and provided answers to questions they took on notice or updated responses that they had given to the chamber. This is standard practice for ministers. It's one of their most basic responsibilities. Yet, Minister Colbeck has even failed to do this today. At Senate estimates on 23 October, Senator Watt and Senator O'Neill asked officials about the number of people who had died in the 2018-19 financial year while waiting for their home care packages. Just to be clear: in October, Labor senators asked, 'How many people died in the 2018-19 financial year'—a year that had come and gone—'while waiting for their home care packages?' We know the figure for the previous financial year: 16,000 Australians died before they got the home care package that they were assessed as needing. Senators Watt and O'Neill were told that the department didn't have the updated figures yet for this last financial year. When pressed for a date that they would be available, the department responded: 'It is certainly close. I think it would be within a month'. Well, a month has come and gone. They have missed that deadline. We're now in the final sitting days of parliament for this year, and we are still without an answer from the minister and his department. This is just like the contempt that the Prime Minister is showing for ministerial standards in relation to the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction. Here we have the minister for ageing showing contempt for this parliament and, more disgracefully, showing contempt for older Australians who need a home care package. Here we are, in the parliament, and the minister is refusing to answer a basic question in his portfolio. That may not grab the attention of the public in the same way it is grabbed by a minister in the other place who is being investigated by the New South Wales Police Force through a criminal task force— Senator McGrath: You'd know all about that, wouldn't you? Senator KENEALLY: That is not what this is. This is a minister, though, who is showing the same contempt for ministerial standards: that is, he is not answering a basic question asked of him in this parliament about a basic figure within his portfolio. It is a basic figure he should know, but it is not basic in terms of the import that it has for older Australians who are waiting for their home care packages, when 16,000 died waiting the previous financial year. All we want to know is how many died in the last financial year waiting for their home care packages. How far will ministerial standards slip under this third-term Liberal-National government? The minister has acknowledged that this is a legitimate question. He said last week: This is a legitimate question. It's one of the reasons why the government takes the issue of aged care and the growth of aged care home care packages so seriously. Well, if he takes it so seriously, how can he not know the answer? How can he be talking about increasing home care packages when he doesn't even know how many people are missing out on home care packages—how many people are dying waiting for their home care package? It would appear that the basic responsibilities of a minister—answering questions from his parliamentary colleagues and being accountable to the Australian people—are a bridge too far for Senator Colbeck. He has shown contempt for the parliament. But more importantly and more significantly, through his administration of the ageing portfolio, which looks after older vulnerable Australians who need our help, seniors who have given their lives to building their families and their communities—in their time of need, when they need a home care package, what do they get from this government? Neglect, lack of information and an insufficient supply of home care packages. That is the utter contempt that Minister Colbeck is showing to older Australians and to this parliament.