Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to acknowledge Dementia Awareness Week, which starts tomorrow. Dementia is the third major cause of death in Australia after heart disease and stroke. It is estimated that today 269,000 Australians live with dementia, with that number to rise to close to one million by 2050. With 1,500 new cases of dementia every week in Australia, the burden on the families, friends and carers of those involved is escalating rapidly.

I heard the stories firsthand from carers at a meeting at Alzheimer's Australia, whose Victorian headquarters are in my electorate and for whom I am a dementia champion. The carers see the urgent need for more resources to tackle dementia and to meet the shortage of carers available. With an estimate that more than 150,000 paid and unpaid carers will be needed in the next 15 years, the need is critical. For example, in Kooyong, statistics indicate we have over 2,000 people living with dementia, with that number expected to more than double in the next 30 years.

When John Howard was in government he took positive steps to make dementia a health priority, including his $320 million dementia initiative in 2005, which broke new ground in funding arrangements for high care, counselling and support, and research into the causes of dementia. It is now high time that the Gillard government took John Howard's lead and met their responsibility to support new, real and substantial dementia initiatives to the benefit of all Australians. (Time expired)