Ken Ticehurst (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—On behalf of the member for Macquarie, I move:

That the House:

(1)

recognises the pressures of an ageing population;

(2)

acknowledges the enormous contribution made by senior citizens throughout their working lives;

(3)

recognises the need to provide quality care for the frail aged in our community;

(4)

welcomes the progress made in this area in recent years; and

(5)

welcomes the Government’s recently announced package of further measures to help provide community-based and residential care for our frail aged.

Ageing and aged care are pressing issues not only for my electorate of Dobell but also for Australia and for countries around the world. We can see this easily when we look at the scale of demographic change that is now pressing upon us. We can expect Australia’s population to continue ageing for at least the next half a century, barring unforeseen changes in net migration or the fertility rate. At the same time, the proportion of young people is expected to fall and the percentage of over-65-year-olds will go up by around 15 per cent at mid-century. This illuminates the range of issues that will confront Australia in the decades ahead. It will not just be a matter of building more and better old people’s homes or providing better care. All that is important, of course, but an ageing society, and fewer young people, means a smaller intake of new employees for the workforce. It means an older workforce. There are important implications for productivity, national competitiveness, and managing pensions and retirement.

I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the enormous contribution made by senior citizens to our country. Over their working lives, senior Australians have contributed to continuing economic growth and helped make Australia one of the most prosperous and successful economies in the world. They are the custodians of our cultural heritage. The Howard government continue to recognise the enormous contributions made by senior Australians through the National Day for Older Australians.

In terms of the provision of quality aged care, the first point I would make is that tomorrow’s older Australians are the baby boomers. In comparison with some earlier periods, they have lived through a time of rapid social and political change. They are, I believe, more independent in outlook, more affluent and more demanding in their expectations. They will change the way we think about care and how we deliver care. For a start, the baby boomers will want to retain their independence as long as they are able. That means staying in their own homes while they can and having care delivered there.

We have heard that message loud and clear, and we have responded by increasing our support for community care in the government’s recently announced Securing the Future of Aged Care for Australians package. Some 7,200 additional community care places will be delivered over the next four years, at a cost of $411.7 million. These additional places will take Australia’s aged care ratio from the current target of 108 places per 1,000 people aged 70 and over to a record 113 places per 1,000 people aged 70 and over in 2011. This compares with around 93 places per 1,000 people when the government was elected in 1996. Where residential aged care is concerned, we believe these baby boomers will insist on better facilities, higher levels of comfort and amenity, and more flexibility in how they live and how they are cared for. Again, this change is happening now. When I attend or open a new home, an extension or a refurbishment on the Central Coast, I am always impressed by the fact that the provider has understood that it is catering for a future clientele whose expectations are of a different order.

The new package allocates $1 billion to increasing government payments for residents of aged-care homes. Additional care funding will be targeted to those with the highest care needs, while residents with moderate asset levels will also receive extra accommodation support. The $1.5 billion package of reforms will ensure that the aged-care industry can deliver quality, choice and affordability in care as Australia’s population ages. We have a come a long way in transforming Australia’s aged-care sector when you consider that only 10 years ago there was no accreditation system, no independent quality checking, fewer than 5,000 community care packages and 29,000 fewer residential places.

Today the Australian aged-care industry can rightly claim to have the highest standards of accommodation and care anywhere in the world, and older Australians and their families have a wider range of options to choose from when the time comes to access aged-care needs. This funding package is, of course, in addition to funding allocated in previous budgets, including $2.2 billion committed to aged care in the 2004-05 budget—the largest single investment in aged care by any Australian government. Alternatively, Labor has not been able to come up with an aged-care policy at all, despite promising one over two years ago. Labor’s ageing policy discussion paper shows a complete lack of understanding of current aged-care policy and programs. The Australian government is committed to addressing the challenges of an ageing population and will ensure that the increasing number of older Australians, now and in the future, have access to the right level of care. (Time expired)

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