When Sam Rae, the minister for aged care, strides to the dispatch box, he always buttons his jacket like a man with something important to say.

He buttoned his jacket when asked in question time on Monday about a 90-year-old man with Parkinson’s who has been told he will have to wait up to 12 months for a government care package to help him stay at home.

And he buttoned his jacket when Opposition Leader Sussan Ley crowed on Wednesday that the Coalition had forced the government to deliver 20,000 home care packages two months earlier than planned.

But Rae had nothing to say on her key claim: that he had been sidelined when his government decided to bargain with the Coalition this week, after facing the reality that the crossbench, Greens and opposition were prepared to unite to deliver

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