John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Those opposite can protest as much as they like but the fact is this—and I will quote some figures from Catholic Health published under the heading ‘Outdated law keeps aged-care from growing with ageing population’:

New nursing home accommodation costs $40.32 per bed per day over 25 years to build and fit out, a new analysis has revealed, compared with a legislated cap on the per-bed payment of just $26.88 per day. The $13.44 shortfall between the cap and the true cost of accommodation is preventing the aged care industry from building desperately-needed new nursing home places.

That is happening in many areas, while in other areas the very facilities that I am talking about are threatened with closure because the providers cannot maintain those facilities because of the loss of money.

I would like to point out that the indexation of the Conditional Adjustment Payment subsidy has been cut. It remains at 8.75 per cent until 2011-12. Interestingly, aged-care providers are screaming that they are struggling to survive and 98 operators went out of business in 2007-08. They are closing down. And what are we going to do to look after the elderly? This is a situation that is serious as can be. We have facilities that are going broke and we have providers handing their licences in, and yet we have the government spending some $60 billion on stimulus packages and putting $14.7 billion into state schools. What is going into the aged-care facilities, which are a responsibility of the federal government? Not one cent. I find it outrageous. This is a problem that is not going to go away easily. We are going to have to address it. I urge the government to address the problem.