Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Apologies, Madam Speaker. The point I make is that people should be able to be cared for in their own community. They should be able to spend their last days in their local community. People do not often speak about this, but you should be able to die in your local community. Being able to die amongst your family and friends is very important, and I have to say I have had enough of the people of my electorate being shunted off in an ambulance in the last days of their lives, away from their loved ones, to have palliative care in a larger regional centre. I quite frankly do not care who pays for it as long as someone does.

This is complex legislation. Aged care is the elephant in the room as far as the Australian economy and community are concerned. We need to come to terms with it. We need to find out the results of the Senate inquiry. We need not to rush into this and to do this with due process.

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