Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am quite pleased to stand here to take note of answers by Minister Santo Santoro. What the Minister for Ageing did in responding to questions from Labor senators on the other side of the chamber was entirely appropriate. He gave direct, straight answers to the questions. He said that he would look into the matter. He has organised meetings. He advised the Senate and the public when these meetings would be held and who they would be held with. He also advised that he would be taking on board any other advice and information from representatives of the aged care community and he was happy to have one-on-one meetings with those representatives over the days and weeks ahead.

What was very important in his response was that he said that he would not be providing a knee-jerk response. This is exactly the type of response that the Labor Party is hoping the minister will provide. He is smarter than that, you see. He is more measured and professional than that. He is going to be an excellent Minister for Ageing. The minister, as people on the other side know, is one of the hardest working senators. He will be looking into these matters with the greatest amount of vigour that you could ever imagine. As Senator Humphries has indicated, we are talking about four incidents—in fact, four allegations have been made. They will be looked into. I think everyone in this place and in the community would support a 100 per cent effort to ensure that the quality of care provided in Australia’s aged care facilities is first class and, in fact, world class. The minister’s responses were entirely appropriate.

What I do want to highlight, however, is what has happened in the aged care sector since 1996, when Labor left office. There has been a vast improvement. What was happening in and around 1996 was that we were caught up in red tape. There was a lot of difficulty in providing a quality service, access to those aged care services and a viable industry. They are the three key planks: providing a quality service, providing access to those aged care services and ensuring a viable industry. That was not happening in 1996. Do you know what has happened since then? There has been a more than doubling of funding and an injection of funds into the aged care sector. We had a review under Minister Julie Bishop. Prior to her we had the excellent leadership of Minister Kevin Andrews. They were great ministers for ageing and aged care. Pursuant to that review, you might recall, in the 2004 budget we had a $2.2 billion injection into the aged care sector over a number of years. That was a huge boost. We all remember when that announcement was made. We said that that was fantastic for older Australians who find themselves heading towards the possibility of moving into an aged care facility, whether it is high care or low care.

Indeed, community aged care packages have gone through the roof exponentially under the government. We have a policy of encouraging older Australians to stay in their homes, if they would most prefer it, and we provide funds to make that happen. There has been a boost in funding to Home and Community Care provisions to ensure that the services and the maintenance in and around the home can be undertaken so that older Australians can stay in their homes. You might say, ‘How do I know what was happening in and around 1996?’ Well, I can tell you. I was on the board of St Ann’s, one of the oldest age cared facilities in Tasmania, for eight years. I know how hard it was for an aged care provider in Tasmania to remain viable and to provide quality care and access to that quality care in and around the southern Tasmanian and Hobart region. I have a lot of time and respect for Susan Parr, the CEO of St Ann’s, and she remains in that position providing excellent leadership not only at St Ann’s but in Tasmania.

As a Tasmanian senator, let me say that I am proud of the Tasmanian aged care sector. They provide excellent quality care across the board. There may be incidents from time to time, but the leadership provided by Aged and Community Services Tasmania is par excellence. (Time expired)