Labor leader Anthony Albanese will on Thursday accuse Prime Minister Scott Morrison of deliberately and callously delaying action to address systemic problems in aged care.
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In a scene-setting speech ahead of next week's federal budget, Mr Albanese will lambast the Morrison government over its economic management and bungling of the COVID-19 pandemic response, as well as call for comprehensive reform of the aged care sector and a crackdown on unscrupulous providers.
"The outcome of the Royal Commission into Aged Care was a shame on our nation - a national embarrassment," he will tell the McKell Institute in Sydney.
"The idea that our most vulnerable citizens are being neglected; of maggots crawling out from underneath bandages, and our own parents and grandparents being malnourished, is incomprehensible in 21st-century Australia."
As a central plank of the Morrison government's response to the outcomes of the Royal Commission into Aged Care, the sector is expected to receive a multibillion-dollar funding boost, reportedly more than $10 billion over four years, in the May budget.
But the Opposition Leader will accuse the Prime Minister of serious neglect, saying that the government has had ample time to move on aged care problems.
"He could have acted earlier. He deliberately and callously chose not to do so," Mr Albanese will say.
"Indeed, this government has received 22 reports into aged care in the past eight years and done little beyond cutting the sector's funding by $1.7 billion."
The Labor leader will say comprehensive reform of the aged care sector is needed including "serious investment", ongoing transparency, a ratings system, and better-paid and trained staff, as well as a crackdown on unscrupulous providers.
"Labor sees dignity in our final years as a birthright, not just the subject of someone's balance sheet," Mr Albanese will say.
The speech will also focus on dementia management, a key priority identified by the royal commission.
Labor says the aged care package in the budget should include basic requirements such as formal dementia training for staff and required standards of dementia care for aged care providers.
The federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will hand down the budget on May 11.
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