Anthony Albanese outlines Labor’s $2.5bn boost to aged care

Anthony Albanese has made an uncosted pledge to fund pay rises for nursing home workers, as he challenged Scott Morrison to call the election immediately.

Anthony Albanese waves to supporters in the public gallery after his budget reply speech on Thursday night. Picture: Gary Ramage

Anthony Albanese has made an uncosted pledge to fund pay rises for nursing home workers, as he challenged Scott Morrison to call the election immediately and “let the people decide”.

The Opposition Leader said on Thursday night a Labor government would “back a real pay rise for aged-care workers”. He also outlined $2.5bn in other measures, including putting more nurses in homes, having a registered nurse on site 24 hours a day, setting minimum care times and improving food quality.

The aged-care initiatives were the only announcements in a budget reply that rehashed a list of already announced policies despite Mr Albanese facing accusations he was entering the election campaign with a small-target political strategy based around negative attacks on the Prime Minister’s character.

With Mr Morrison expected to call the federal election mid-next week, Mr Albanese said Labor was ready to go.

“I say to this Prime Minister, who himself declared months ago he was campaigning and not governing: call the election, call it now and let the people of Australia decide,” the Labor leader said.

Declaring that he would “put the care back into aged care” in his budget-reply speech, Mr Albanese blamed the Morrison government for turning a “blind eye to (nursing home) operators who put profit ahead of the people in their care”. “Labor knows that these carers – who work long hours doing such important and often backbreaking work – are underpaid and undervalued, with some earning as little as $22 an hour,” Mr Albanese said. “We’ll support the workers’ call for better pay at the Fair Work Commission. And a Labor government will fund the outcome of this case. Because if we want higher standards of care we need to support higher wages for our carers.”

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said Mr Albanese had provided “no detail of how they’re going to pay” for the aged-care package.

“This was a very shallow, poor performance from the Labor Party, demonstrating that they have no economic plan, no jobs plan, no tax-relief plan, no cost-of-living plan for Australians,” Senator Birmingham said.

“It’s not good enough weeks away from an election to front up and make sweeping promises without detailing the cost of them and how they’ll be funded.”

Government sources said the uncosted pay rises for aged-care workers would cost many billions of dollars.

Mr Morrison, who this week criticised Mr Albanese’s “vacant space” strategy, will campaign in western Sydney on Friday and deliver a post-budget speech. Mr Albanese’s pre-election pitch held back Labor’s plans for health, national security, schools and paid parental leave, and failed to outline how it will pay for new spending measures including cheaper childcare, free TAFE courses and increased funding for defence and foreign aid.

The Labor leader said his election pitch would be anchored by commitments to increase wages, protect Medicare, superannuation and NDIS funding, fix the aged-care crisis, build affordable housing, and invest in clean energy, manufacturing, skills and jobs.

Mr Albanese, who will campaign in Sydney on Friday, has said Labor will pay for its spending measures by cracking down on multinational tax loopholes and more targeted spending of grants programs, although there has not been any formal savings commitments.

The Health Services Union case before the Fair Work Commission is pushing for a 25 per cent pay increase for aged-care workers, equating to an increase of between $5.40 and $7.20 an hour to increase the average wage to $29 per hour. Labor’s five-point $2.5bn plan to repair the aged-care sector over four years includes having a registered nurse on site 24 hours a day, mandating a minimum of 215 minutes of care per day, providing better food for residents and funding “more staff and better support”.

In response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, the Morrison government last year announced a $17.7bn budget boost and five-year plan to improve nursing homes.

After Bill Shorten’s 2019 election defeat and Labor’s shift to a small-target strategy, Mr -Albanese said his team would be “upfront” with voters ahead of the May election and focus on “renewal not revolution”.

“I have unlimited faith in our country’s potential and, if I have the honour of serving as your prime minister, I can promise you I will work as hard as I can every day to see that potential realised,” he said. “I will act with integrity, lead with responsibility – and treat you with respect. We’ve been through a tough couple of years, but I know our best days can be ahead of us. I will work with you to build a better future.”

With Labor set to capitalise on Mr Morrison’s unpopularity, Mr Albanese said he would not “go missing when the going gets tough, or pose for photos and then disappear when there’s a job to be done”.

“I’ll show up, I’ll step up – and I’ll work every day to bring our country together,” he said.

“It is this objective of bringing people together in the national interest that will characterise a Labor government I lead, in stark contrast to this government that is always seeking to divide.”

Mr Albanese said Tuesday’s budget was full of “one-off handouts for problems that have been a decade in the making”.

He said the problem for Mr Morrison was that the “Australian people had figured him out”.

“This government will say whatever it takes and promise whatever they think will get them a second decade in office,” he said.

In a speech dominated by political rhetoric, Mr Albanese repeated his personal story to -illustrate why he was ready to take on the nation’s top job.

“As I ask you for the privilege of forming government, I think about the path of my life that has led me here,” he said.

“I grew up in a council house, raised by a single mother. Mum and I didn’t have much, but we had each other. I learnt the value of a dollar. I learnt about the strength of community. I learnt about the power of optimism in the face of adversity. I learnt about the strength of a parent’s love, and how they will move mountains to give their kids a better life.

“It’s where I learnt to fight for what I believe in and what it means for everyday people to have leaders who fight for them. It’s why I’ll fight so hard for a better future.”

HSU national president Gerard Hayes, who had pressured Mr Albanese to adopt the union’s call for higher wages, said “for too long aged-care workers have risked poverty or homelessness just so they can do their job and care for the elderly”.