Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Shortland for her question and I note what a very strong interest she has when it comes to aged-care places and community care places. Australians have the second longest life expectancy in the world, which is great news, and currently there are some 2.8 million Australians, about 13 per cent of our population, aged 65 years and over. This number is expected to triple over the next 40 years, and an Australian born today can expect to reach 81.4 years of age, which is great news.

To meet these challenges over the next four years, the Australian government is investing more than $40 billion when it comes to aged care, $28.6 billion of that on nursing homes alone. We acted because for the last 12 years the previous government neglected aged care. They were always talking down the aged-care sector. Well, we are committed to fixing that. In fact, no Australian government has committed more funding to aged care than the Rudd Labor government.

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