Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Ageing, Senator Santoro. I refer the minister to the decision to award Mr Russell Egan Jr, the owner of a vacant block of land on the Gold Coast, 94 bed licences for a yet to be built nursing home. Can the minister confirm that Mr Egan is now free to sell his company, complete with its 94 phantom bed licences, to the highest bidder? Hasn’t Mr Egan himself claimed on the internet that he could sell the bed licences on the free market for a total of $3.7 million? Isn’t this why Mr Egan has boasted that he ‘hit the jackpot’ and that it was ‘the best Christmas present ever’? At the same time as Mr Egan is bragging about cashing in his jackpot from taxpayers, aren’t elderly Gold Coast residents forced to wait in line for yet another 94 phantom beds to materialise?