Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for her question. Mr Broadbent has a perspective on how he believes the aged-care sector should be structured, and I respect his perspective. He talks about the changes that were made in the late nineties and the opportunity for different forms of providers to come into the aged-care sector. I respect Mr Broadbent's perspective on that, but governments since that period of time, since the late nineties, have continued on a path that we see now, where we have a range of provider types. We have government providers through the states, we have providers that are community based, we have for-profit providers and we have not-for-profit providers. That is the current structure of the aged-care sector in this country. I will point out the fact that we wanted a forensic inspection of the entire aged-care sector, which is why the Prime Minister called a royal commission, which is currently underway. We look forward to the recommendations of the royal commission with respect to the structure of the sector—