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

My question is to Senator Santoro, the Minister for Ageing. Can the minister confirm that the budget did not contain any measure to provide for the indexation of aged care subsidies on 1 July 2006? Is the minister aware that aged care subsidies are indexed on 1 July each year on the basis of a Commonwealth own purpose outlays, or COPO, index, which is largely based on the safety net adjustment handed down by the Industrial Relations Commission? Hasn’t the government stopped the IRC from handing down such an adjustment in 2006 and isn’t it relying on its Fair Pay Commission to hand down its decision on minimum wage increases in September this year? With no safety net adjustment to factor into the COPO index, doesn’t this mean that aged care residents and providers are facing a virtual funding freeze on 1 July 2006?

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

Senator McLucas would know, or at least she should know, that there is no change in this budget to existing arrangements for indexation of Commonwealth own purpose outlays. Senator McLucas would know that the wage component of wage cost indexes continues to reflect the most recent safety net adjustment from the AIRC. There is no basis for suggesting that the growth in funding under any new indexation arrangements will be any less than under existing arrangements. The government has not factored in any indexation savings as a result of the workplace relations reforms.

To date, the wage component of the wage cost indexes has been based on the Australian Industrial Relations Commission’s safety net review decision as a measure of non-productivity related wages growth. We will continue to index government costs consistent with current policy. There will continue to be a wage and a CPI component. The forward estimates include indexation of funding based on current parameters. We neither plan nor forecast wage cost savings in the future.

Labor is purporting that indexation policy has changed when clearly it has not. Throughout the public debate on workplace relations reform, Labor and the unions have repeatedly misrepresented the facts about the content of the government’s reform package. Their failed attempt in the High Court to obtain injunctions and declarations to stymie the government’s information campaign is one example of their desperation to prevent a factually based debate, something which Senator McLucas continually refuses to indulge in. Now that Labor is unable to secure a one-sided debate by legal means, it is resorting to misleading statements in the political arena.

Last night’s budget clearly indicated again the Howard government’s overwhelming commitment to the aged care sector of this nation. The Howard government will invest more than $6.9 billion in 2006-07 in supporting older Australians in both aged care homes and their own communities.

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

Mr President, I rise on a point of order. This is a very specific question. This is about indexation measures that are, or are not—and I think from the minister’s point that they are not—in the budget. I simply want an answer to that question. I do not want him to go on with his dorothy dixer about how good he thinks it might be. Let him just answer this question specifically.

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

While the minister has a minute and a half left, I do believe he was answering the question very relevantly about indexation, but he may have strayed into other areas. I ask the minister whether he has anything further.

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

Senator McLucas obviously has forgotten the content of her question, because in asking her question about indexation, which I believe I have answered, she also suggested to me that in fact there has been a decline in funding for the aged care sector in Australia. Senator McLucas also suggested that we are not putting sufficient outlays into the aged care sector. I would suggest that Senator McLucas actually remembers her question and if she wants to just keep it to indexation, she should do so. She is not going to shut me up, because the track record of the—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order!

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

Senator McLucas and those opposite may not want to hear the details of the very real commitment of the Howard government to aged care. The budget last night committed $108.3 million over five years for new initiatives. I have just read Senator McLucas’s media release and I acknowledge that she showed some grace, though not much grace, in actually welcoming some of our initiatives. Let me tell you in the time I have remaining what those commitments are—and I hope Senator McLucas asks me about this in her supplementary question: $108.3 million over five years for new initiatives and funding totalling $311.3 million over four years to extend existing programs. It also provides $152.7 million for improved provision of hospital care, including in small rural hospitals, to older people who are eligible for aged care as part of the major package of health reforms agreed at COAG in February 2006—a meeting where much more grace and a much more constructive attitude was displayed by Labor ministers and Labor members than that being displayed in this place today. (Time expired)

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

I ask a supplementary question, Mr President. Minister, how are aged care providers supposed to plan ahead and manage their operations if they do not know what their funding will be in two months time? Is it not a fact that the budget papers this year have allocated significantly less additional funding for aged care subsidies for 2006-07 than was allocated last year? Is this because the budget papers do not include the additional funding flowing from indexation? Minister, is there indexation and has it been applied?

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

I do not know how often I have to tell Senator McLucas that there is no change in the budget in relation to existing arrangements. Aged care providers have all of the security available to them in terms of forecasting what expenditure they need to incur. I repeat again for the benefit of the senators opposite, and in particular Senator McLucas, that aged care providers know that the government will continue to index government costs consistent with current policy. If Senator McLucas does not understand that, the people in the aged care sector certainly do. I have spoken to a number of them this morning and that issue was not raised with me. It is a furphy manufactured by Senator McLucas. I would strongly recommend that Senator McLucas takes a constructive and nonpolitical approach to this very important issue. (Time expired)