Santo Santoro (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

The reason we will not be adopting any alternative policies is very simple: there are none, even if we did want to consider them. What Senator McLucas and her colleagues over there are concerned about is running down the reputation of aged care homes and their staff and frightening residents and their families.

Under the Hawke-Keating governments, and this is very instructional, there was no system of accreditation for nursing homes, there was no policy on building certification, there was no policy on fire safety in nursing homes and there was no increase—I repeat: no increase—in aged care places for the elderly and the frail. On 3 July, Barry Jones, the President of the Australian Labor Party, committed to having an aged care policy by the Labor Party within a few weeks. A few weeks after 3 July, we are still waiting, and I suspect we will continue to wait.