Sussan Ley is back! She has a bit of a bounce in her step today. She is obviously feeling like it’s a good day – and given the low bar for the Coalition – it is. This is a policy win (which was not the Coalition’s sole doing – without the Greens and independents like David Pocock, it would not have happened) which will make a difference for people – and shows the government can be shifted.

But of course, in the celebrations, there is hubris.

Ley:

My question is to the Minister for Aged Care. The Minister has repeatedly claimed there were “Around 87,000 people waiting for a home care package as at the 31st of March”. Moments ago in the Senate the government admitted that the wait list crisis has worsened significantly. Senator[Jenny] McAllister confirmed that, as at 31 July, there are almost 109,000 elderly Australians waiting, another 20,000 in the queue.

When did minister or his office become aware of this number and why didn’t he provide it to the house?

Rae:

There is an established process for verifying and releasing data as it pertains to the national priority system wait list. At the end of March, around 87,000 people were on the national priority system wait list and we were releasing more than 2,000 home care packages every week up to this point to deal with that question.

There is a process of verification because the government doesn’t want to release incorrect information when it comes to the national priority system. It is a long standing process that was the same as was managed under the previous government and I refer the Leader of the Opposition to the numbers that I have given repeatedly throughout this debate

Alex Hawke wants to make a point of order, but Rae decides he has finished his answer. Hawke tries anyway. Dick sits him down. It’s the Wednesday of a second sitting week. No one wants to deal with this any more.