Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Ageing. What assistance is the government providing to help older Australians retain their independence and continue to live in their own homes and communities?

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

I thank the member for Page for her question and for her ongoing interest and commitment when it comes to providing care for our older Australians. Australians are living longer and healthier lives, which of course is great news—in fact, we have one of the longest life expectancies in the world. Our older Australians have a very strong desire to retain their independence and to remain in their homes close to family, friends and community for as long as they can. The government recognises this and, indeed, governments throughout the country recognise this through our Home and Community Care program. We do that to provide funding for services to make sure this can happen so that people can remain in their own homes.

Home and Community Care is a joint Australian, state and territory government program. It delivers affordable and accessible care to help meet the needs of older people and their carers. In fact, last year the Rudd government provided $1.1 billion of the nearly $1.8 billion in funding provided for these HACC services. HACC offers services such as household chores, home maintenance and modification, transport, meals, personal care, allied health and nursing care. These are all practical and common-sense services provided to older Australians so that they can remain in their homes for longer.

As the 2007-08 HACC annual report detailed, HACC provided services to 600,000 older Australians. This is the first time there has been an annual report in relation to HACC services. What that report also showed is that eight million hours of domestic assistance—practical and common-sense assistance—has been provided. I have had the opportunity to see firsthand the benefits that HACC services bring to older Australians. I have seen the benefit of those services right across Australia. In fact, I was very pleased recently to visit a Canberra couple, Mr and Mrs Eckholt, who told me how these HACC services made a real difference to their lives and meant they were able to stay in their own home for longer.

In addition to this HACC funding, the Commonwealth government provided $730 million in the last financial year for Commonwealth community care services, and there are now more than 59,000 older Australians who receive assistance through these packages to make sure that they can remain in their homes longer. There is also our commitment to transition care as well—keeping people out of hospital, getting them out of hospital quicker and making sure they get home much quicker. The Rudd government understands that older Australians want to remain in their homes and in their communities, the communities that they help build. We are doing that. We are supporting our older Australians by providing more services and more funding than ever before.