Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to provide additional information to an answer to a question from Senator Williams asked me, as Minister representing the Minister for Health and Ageing, during question time on 17 September 2009. The question was, ‘Can the minister indicate how many aged-care providers have handed their licences back and closed down in the past year, and their reasons for doing so?’ The Minister for Health and Ageing has provided the following answer, that in the last financial year, 2008-09, no providers handed back their places and also closed down. Five hundred and seventy-one provisionally allocated residential places were surrendered, 29 operational aged-care places were relinquished by providers and 15 provisionally allocated places lapsed. Providers are not obliged to give reasons for returning places and to the extent that they do it may not be the case that the explanation they give reflects all the factors leading to their decision. The 29 operational residential aged-care places were relinquished due to low occupancy. None of the residential aged-care services to which these places pertained closed.