Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Deakin for his question. The Rudd government is serious about reforming our health, hospital and aged-care systems. In fact, only three months ago we released the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission report and since that time the Prime Minister, the health minister, the Minister for Indigenous Health, the Parliamentary Secretary for Health and I have been travelling around the country road testing the 123 recommendations for reform that were in the commission’s report. In fact, last Friday’s consultation in Alice Springs by Minister Snowdon was the government’s 60th consultation. That is one consultation every 1½ days. We are listening to people at the coalface to get their views. More than 4,500 people have attended these consultations and the feedback has been very positive. In fact, aged-care providers have been actively engaged in the process, recognising the need to build an integrated health and aged-care system that meets the needs of our ageing population.

This government has already taken very concrete steps to meet the challenges of an ageing population. We have provided more funding for aged-care services than any previous Australian government, increasing funding to the sector by an average of nine per cent a year. We have rolled out transition care places to support older people recovering and regaining their independence, keeping them out of hospitals and keeping them out of early entry into nursing homes. We have also invested in our aged-care workforce to improve the quality of care today and for the future, and we are making more information available for consumers, particularly about the performance of individual aged-care facilities. Very importantly, we have taken a very tough stand to protect our older Australians.

Australians now have one of the longest life expectancies in the English-speaking world and, of course, with increased longevity more people are living with multiple, complex and chronic conditions. The ageing of the population presents substantial challenges that this government is working hard to meet. Under the previous government, Australians had a decade of neglect in the health and aged-care sector. In contrast, we have a blueprint for reform and we are out there consulting with the community and discussing that with them. We stand on the cusp of the most significant reform to our health system since the introduction of Medicare 25 years ago, and I urge the opposition to support it.

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