Ms KEARNEY (Cooper) (15:41): I am pleased to speak on this matter of public importance today and to follow the Leader of the Opposition and our shadow minister on this topic. The government is failing to represent the interests of all Australians—in particular, some of our most vulnerable Australians, and that is our older Australians. Our parents, our grandparents, our great aunts and our uncles—the elders of our communities—have spent their lives working and caring for us. These are the people whom I thought were some of the Prime Minister's 'quiet Australians'. But maybe they are too quiet—because all they're getting from this government now is unfunded empathy. Yesterday marked the first anniversary of the announcement of a royal commission into aged care, and it has proven that there is not one part of Australia's aged-care system that isn't affected by crisis. As a nurse, I thought I might offer some advice to the government on how they could start to fix aged care right now and give our elderly Australians the dignity they deserve. I have three points: (1) workforce; (2) funding that is fit-for-purpose; and (3) the need for accountability and transparency in the sector. Workforce is one of the most crucial parts to fixing our broken aged-care system. Despite putting money into a 'workforce strategy', how does the government know that the money's actually being spent on the workforce—on nurses, on carers, on people with the skills that are needed to care for demented patients? We've heard time and time again that staff want more time to care. It has emerged as a key issue of the royal commission. It is something which the wonderful aged-care unions—the United Workers Union, the ANMF and the HACSU—have been raising for years. Staffing numbers, skill mix, staff training, qualifications and experience are key concerns which, if absent, negatively impact on the ability of staff to provide safe quality care. The impetus to get this right is enormous. In order to meet ever-increasing demand for aged-care services and support the workforce will need to more than triple by 2050. By 2050 we will need to have more than one million Australians working in aged care. This represents a workforce growth rate of about two per cent annually in order to meet future demand at a time when the overall employment-to-population ratio will be declining. We have got to have a quality workforce which sees aged-care workers getting the respect and dignity they deserve. Aged care is not babysitting. It requires a skilled, well-taught, well-paid and respected workforce. Secondly, the government must that ensure funding is adequate to meet the needs of our ageing population and is linked to care. That means proper residential care, better and more home-care packages and adequate funding for rural and residential aged-care facilities, who are struggling to stay afloat, struggling to cope with growing demand for complex-care patients. Last week the ABC reported that more than half of the nursing homes run by Australia's largest provider, Bupa, are failing basic standards of care, and 30 per cent are putting the health and safety of the elderly who are under their care at risk. Now, I'm sorry, but how does a provider that receives nearly half a billion dollars in taxpayer subsidies get away with this? The funding needs to be tied to care. It is a simple premise. If a for-profit provider is making millions of dollars out of publicly funded beds yet is not providing enough staff or delivering quality of care, and is risking the lives of those residents, that's got to be addressed. Thirdly, the government must drive greater accountability for the delivery and use of aged-care funding by providers. Publishing staff numbers, for example, is a simple reform that could drive better care, as is allowing scrutiny of taxpayers' funds and opening the books to regulators. It's not something new. With the superannuation industry, for example, APRA enforces superannuation funds to open their books and get scrutiny. We could do the same in aged care. For those who do provide better care and for those who have nothing to worry about, this would not be worrying. I'm not going to stand here and tell you that the solution is simple. It isn't. The solution requires thought and genuine reform that overhauls the sector and ensures the respect, the safety and the dignity of all elderly people who are in care. The government is failing older Australians when they need us most. Worse, the government has no plans and no ideas on how they're going to fix the system or how they're going to ensure that aged-care residents get the nursing and care they deserve. Waiting for the royal commission to report in 2020 is not an option.