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

In thanking Senator Humphries for his question, could I also acknowledge his very strong advocacy on behalf of the aged and the frail in the ACT—an advocacy that has been so effective it has even been recognised by the current Chief Minister of the ACT, Mr Stanhope. Mr President, I have been waiting; I waited yesterday for a follow-up question to those asked of me on Tuesday, and I provided the opposition with some quite specific information relating to Queensland—but alas. I am thankful to Senator Humphries for at least having the interest to provide me with some further opportunity to elaborate on the performance of the Howard government in its provision of aged care places.

When the Howard government was elected in 1996 it inherited a national deficit of 10,000 aged care places. It was not the incoming Howard government that said that; in fact it was said in the latest report of the Auditor-General. After years of Labor Party neglect, Australia had an operational ratio of—listen to this, Mr President—just 93 aged care places per 1,000 people aged over 70. Thanks to 10 years of strong investment in aged care, the Howard government has increased that ratio from 93 to 106 places per 1,000 people over 70 years of age. We are on track to achieve the target we committed to in 1996—that is, 108 aged care operational places per 1,000 people over the age of 70 by the end of next year.

Mr President, to assist the opposition, I have presented the information in the form of a table. In case they do not understand the figures, the red arrow represents the Labor Party’s performance—