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

Again, Senator McLucas seeks to verbal and to slur me. There are two main reasons that places are not filled. One reason is that they are allocated on a provisional basis—and that needs to happen because proper planning requires that some places are allocated on a provisional basis. The other reason—and I have explained this to Senator McLucas and to the Senate, and the industry understands that this is the case—and this is an example, is that local government authorities are very slow in approving DAs which will bring aged care facilities into operation. To remedy that, fairly shortly I will be announcing some very serious initiatives which will help overcome that particular problem.