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

No disrespect to you, Mr Acting Deputy President. I was just asking if Senator Patterson would clarify what she was saying. The point that I am making is that severe sanctions including the closure of a nursing home can sometimes be considered but that may be against the best interests of residents and is not always an easy thing to do.

Senator Nettle spoke at length about aged care and migrants. In broad response to Senator Nettle I will say that, with all due recognition to the tremendous amount of work that former ministers like Senator Patterson did before me, there probably has never been an aged-care minister in Australia who has been able to bring about as ethnically sensitive a perspective to the administration of aged care in Australia. With a name like Santo Santoro and having been born overseas and with all that sort of thought and argument, I am very much concerned about and interested in advancing the policy agenda when it comes to looking after ageing and frail migrants.

The Australian government does provide support for all Australians in need of aged care, including those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. As of March 2006, there were 180 ethno-specific residential aged-care services, with 7,079 places. Additionally, the Australian government recognises that extra support is required to ensure good access by people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. In 2006-07, the Australian government will be funding over 40 organisations to provide further support for aged-care services. The Community Partners Program—one of the programs which provides the support—will continue in 2006-07 with funding of $2.4 million. Thirty-five new projects have been approved under the Community Partners Program for the 2006-07 financial year, and around 24 communities will benefit from this funding, including five projects for the newly funded Afghanistani, Iraqi, Albanian, Thai and Laos communities.

It may also interest members to know that in the near future I will be meeting with the Federation of Ethnic Communities Council of Australia, possibly as soon as next week. During the past two or three visits interstate, I have met with representatives of migrant communities on a number of occasions and have benefited greatly from the advice that they have been able to provide to me on behalf of the people that they represent.

Senator Webber raised some issues relating to the workforce. She quite rightly raised concerns about the growing requirements for a workforce that already provides very valuable service to the aged and the frail, in both residential settings and community settings. Of course, with respect, I think that Senator Webber was a little cynical, because we should recognise in this chamber and anywhere else that right across the Western world there is an acute shortage of doctors and nurses. I will not go through at any great length the great amount of funding and the intended increase in the number of new doctors and nurses that the federal government has provided for through that funding, but the Howard government has provided $229 million for workforce initiatives for the 2005-09 period, including upskilling opportunities—for example, 5,200 enrolled nurses being educated in medication management—1,600 new nursing places to universities that demonstrate aged-care expertise and emphasis, and 1,000 aged-care scholarships. Of course, the government has undertaken and will continue to undertake aged-care workforce surveys.

I very much appreciated Senator Barnett’s contribution because he again clearly outlined the great contribution that this government has made in terms of investment in the aged-care sector—$2.2 billion—and the great increases in places that we have spoken about in this chamber, both during question time and on other occasions. I will not go through the details of the contributions of Senator Barnett, Senator Adams and Senator Humphries. They put very much on the record in a very eloquent way the government’s contribution to the aged-care sector since 1996. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.