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

Senator Abetz is right to ask the question despondently: ‘Is that all?’ By June 2006 there were 38,492 community care places, an increase of over 860 per cent, and we are now about to add another 7,200 places to this number over the next four years. Today the Labor Party still fails to appreciate the value that elderly Australians place on community care packages, with Labor’s shadow minister, a senator in this place, continually fiddling with figures by ignoring community places and misleading journalists with dodgy figures. There are a lot of senators in this place that do not know the value of these aged-care packages. An EACH package delivers $39,055, and an advanced aged-care package in the community as to EACH dementia is $45,048—that is what they are worth. (Time expired)