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

I thank the member for his question and I am certainly pleased to highlight our funding for aged and community care in Western Australia and right across Australia. Over the next four years, funding for aged and community care will reach record levels of $44 billion, and the government is investing record amounts in aged and community care with more than $2.6 billion being invested in residential aged care in Western Australia over the next four years. Since the election of the Rudd government, operational residential aged-care beds in Western Australia have increased. Indeed, the latest aged-care approvals round saw a total of 1,544 new aged-care places for Western Australia. This consisted of 519 residential aged-care places and 1,025 community care places worth over $50 million in annual recurrent funding. In addition, over $10.5 million has been allocated in capital and community care grants to develop and support new services.

See this speech in context