The Rudd Labor government could not be expected in its first budget to right all the wrongs of more than a decade of coalition rule, says Treasurer Wayne Swan.
Mr Swan today defended his budget against suggestions it had nothing in it for non-profit organisations to upgrade or build new aged care facilities.
Peter Norman, chairman of community and care group Mayflower, told Mr Swan at a business luncheon that aged care had been neglected for 40 years and retirement homes desperately needed improving.
Mr Swan said pensioners and seniors had been provided for in his budget with an additional $900 for those on aged pensions.
He said extra capital also had been made available in loans for the sector to upgrade.
"This is a government in the first six months of its life putting out its first budget," Mr Swan said.
"We cannot, in one budget, redress the wrongs of the last 11 or 12 years, or the last 40 years, it simply cannot be done in one budget."
He said there was much more to be done, including providing capital investment for aged care facilities and meeting the demand for disability support.
"But a new government, in its first six months of office, cannot address every single one of those in its first budget - there will be more budgets to come," Mr Swan said.