Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Ageing. Minister, what is the government’s response to community concerns about the need to create more aged-care beds in areas of high need?

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

I thank the member for Shortland for her question and I note what a very strong interest she has when it comes to aged-care places and community care places. Australians have the second longest life expectancy in the world, which is great news, and currently there are some 2.8 million Australians, about 13 per cent of our population, aged 65 years and over. This number is expected to triple over the next 40 years, and an Australian born today can expect to reach 81.4 years of age, which is great news.

To meet these challenges over the next four years, the Australian government is investing more than $40 billion when it comes to aged care, $28.6 billion of that on nursing homes alone. We acted because for the last 12 years the previous government neglected aged care. They were always talking down the aged-care sector. Well, we are committed to fixing that. In fact, no Australian government has committed more funding to aged care than the Rudd Labor government.

Chris Pearce (Aston, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Pearce interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! If the member for Aston would stay quiet, he might hear.

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

One of the major challenges of an ageing population is to find ways to help nursing home providers to set up beds in areas of high need. That is why we established the zero real interest loans and associated places round: to meet that specific need. Members of this chamber will be very pleased to hear that stage 1 has been a huge success. As a result of this plan, there will be 1,348 new nursing home beds and more than 100 community care packages in areas of high need. This is stage 1 of our election commitment.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

I hear someone asking, ‘Where are they?’ I will outline that. This includes 375 new places in Western Australia, valued at $46.6 million; 154 new places in Tasmania, valued at $16.07 million; 293 new places in New South Wales, valued at $30 million; 246 new beds in Victoria, valued at $19.7 million; 259 new places in Queensland, valued at $24.7 million; and 128 new beds in South Australia, valued at $12.8 million. This is about providing nursing home beds through low-cost finance in areas where they were previously very unlikely to be established. We will now build on this very successful plan in developing stage 2 of zero real interest loans, and we will examine further ways to create more nursing home beds in areas of high need. As I said before, for 12 years under the previous government aged care was neglected. This government is committed to meeting the challenges of the 21st century, including our ageing population.