“But we also accepted the royal commission’s recommendation that it would take us until 2024 to be able to do this in a way that didn’t have detrimental and consequential impacts on other areas of the healthcare sector that rely on our nursing staff.”

The government’s budget documents show it is funding nursing care for 16 hours each day in response to two major findings on staff levels in recommendation 86 of the royal commission’s final report.

The first element was to require aged care homes to have registered nurses,enrolled nurses,and personal care workers for at least 200 minutes per resident a day for the average resident,with at least 40 minutes provided by a registered nurse.

The second was to make sure homes had at least one registered nurse on site per residential aged care facility for the morning and afternoon shifts,covering 16 hours a day.

The government formally accepted this recommendation and funded the care for 16 hours each day in the May 2021 budget as part of a $17.7 billion package. The government response to the royal commission did not mention care for 24 hours.

Labor went further in its response to this year’s budget whenAlbanese pledged $2.5 billion to ensure more nurses and better food quality in homes.

O’Neil said the government had never said it would deliver 24/7 nursing because the stated policy was only 16 hours.

“They are using ethically corrupt language to try to convince people they have a policy they have never stated before,” she said.

“If they want to change the policy,fine,but let’s at least be honest about what each party is proposing on aged care.”

The Labor pledge costs $456.1 million over four years for a measure costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office to ensure nurses were available for 24 hours rather than 16 hours. This is part of the wider $2.5 billion Labor policy announced on March 31.

“There is a crisis in this country and that’s what this election is about,” Albanese said in a series of heated remarks about aged care during a campaign doorstop in Brisbane on Wednesday.

“This election is about whether we have a government that looks after people,or whether we have Scott Morrison who goes missing,who goes missing unless there’s a photo op.”

Cut through the noise of the federal election campaign with news,views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley.Sign up to our Australia Votes 2022 newsletter here.