Santo Santoro (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

The beds that Senator McLucas talks about, as she would appreciate, are some of those phantom beds that exist because unfortunately state governments, of which the Beattie Labor government is one, oversee town planning regimes which simply do not approve applications by nursing home proprietors with sufficient speed. The beds do not exist for that reason. In the same vein, I congratulate the Tasmanian government on recently participating in the signing of a tripartite agreement with a view to encouraging local government authorities to go about streamlining their planning and approval processes so that what Senator McLucas is seeking to seriously address, I would hope, can be addressed in practical terms at a ground level.

I will be more specific in my reply to Senator McLucas. As she knows, a total of 11,208 aged care places were allocated as a result of the 2005 aged care approvals round. This included 5,274 residential care places, 4,352 community aged care packages, 915 extended aged care at home packages, and 667 extended aged care at home dementia packages. On 1 May 2006, as Senator McLucas would know—or maybe she does not know—I announced that there would be an estimated 26,391 new aged care places made available through the aged care approval rounds over the years 2006, 2007 and 2008. This includes 7,678 places available to be allocated in the 2006 aged care approval round comprising 4,585 residential care places, 1,926 CACPs, 500 EACH packages and 667 EACH dementia packages. I can assure Senator McLucas that, out of that total allocation, Queensland will get more than its fair share based on demographics and population. When you consider the demographics that apply in Queensland, it will be receiving what it deserves to get under the formulas.

The Australian government has provided $468 million over four years to increase the aged care provision ratio from the existing level of 100 operational places to 108 operational places for every 1,000 people aged 70 or over, allowing even more older Australians needing care to receive aged care services. I think that is something that Senator McLucas and everybody else on the other side of this chamber should acknowledge. It is a performance that, when Senator McLucas asks me her inevitable follow-up question, I will continue to address.