Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. You may recognise what I have here in my hand.

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

I am glad you found it. The member for New England will come to his question.

Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The theft that occurred has been rectified! My question is to the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. I understand that the Younger People in Residential Aged Care Program of the Council of Australian Governments will end in a few weeks—on 30 June—after five years. Whilst the initiative has helped over 800 young people in this group to have a better quality of life, there are still 6,500 young Australians who remain inappropriately placed in nursing homes. I ask that the minister inform the House whether recommendations of the 2009 mid-term review have been accepted and implemented and whether the government's plans are for continuing the important work into the future, particularly recommendation 3 of the review which refers to regional and remote areas.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for New England for his question and I think we all join together in congratulating him on his 20 years of service. This is a very important question and, like the member for New England, I think I can say that all members of this House agree that it is critical that we work together to provide alternative accommodation to young people who have been inappropriately housed in nursing homes in the past. As the member for New England has just outlined, too many people continue to be in nursing homes even when they are quite young.

I can reassure the member for New England that the government is continuing to provide funding to the Young People in Residential Care Program. In fact, this year we are delivering around $38 million to the states and territories to assist them to move people into more appropriate accommodation so that young people can live with dignity in places that are more suited to their needs. I also want to reassure the member for New England and all members of this House that that funding is ongoing. I know there have been some concerns about that, but I can reassure him that that funding is in our budget out into the future. It is funded as part of the $6.2 billion National Disability Agreement. One of the important changes that this government has made is to improve the indexation of the funding that goes into that agreement. The indexation now is around six per cent, so we can certainly see that money growing as the years go on.

It is very important that I let you know that, just last December at a meeting of Commonwealth, state and territory disability ministers, we reaffirmed our continuing commitment to address the needs of young people in nursing homes. In addition to that, the government announced in the election campaign that we would invest an extra $60 million to build up to 150 innovative community based accommodation places for people with disability. I anticipate that most of those places will go to young people. So we certainly recognise, with the member for New England—and I think I can confidently say that this is a view held by many in this House—that we do need to continue to help those young people who are inappropriately in nursing homes to find better and more appropriate accommodation where they can live with dignity.