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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 08 Hansard (Tuesday, 3 August 2004) . . Page.. 3355 ..

extended to our older population so that more couples, be they different sex or same sex couples, can grow old together. That is one issue that is generally not debated when we are considering our ageing population.

MR SMYTH (Leader of the Opposition) (4.25): This afternoon an important matter of public importance has been put on the agenda: caring for Canberra’s ageing population. Of course, a very important part of caring for the ageing population is the provision of aged care facilities. As you, Mr Deputy Speaker, have pointed out, and as others have mentioned, keeping older Canberrans active in our fair city is very important. But for many older Canberrans there comes a point where the only alternative is to go into an aged care facility. At this stage, for most of them there is a very long wait.

The provision of places for aged care accommodation represents one of the most pressing of the current policy issues but it has been neglected and abandoned by the government. It is quite interesting, at this late stage in the term of the government—it has been in office for some 33 months—to see the Chief Minister, the minister for ageing, racing around the territory making announcements to create the impression that this is a government—and I want to quote him because it is such a fabulous line—“that is determined to stay ahead of the game by increasing the supply of aged care accommodation”.

In case you missed that, we have a Chief Minister and a minister for the ageing who is determined to stay ahead of the game by “increasing the supply of aged care accommodation”. In his speech the Chief Minister said, “It’s the Commonwealth that’s dragging its feet—the Commonwealth”. It is always the Commonwealth’s fault when something is wrong in the ACT. It is interesting because he goes on in the next paragraph in his press release of 20 July to say, “The ACT government has acted quickly to respond to the allocation of aged care funding by the Commonwealth government.” I repeat: “The ACT government has acted quickly”.

Let us look at how quickly it has acted. A number of cases spring to mind. The one that comes immediately to people’s minds is the development of the aged care facility at Calvary Hospital by the Little Company of Mary. On 20 July at Goodwin Homes we had the most unedifying sight of the Chief Minister—buoyed by his own importance and the fact that he had just opened up probably the first 20 aged care beds that he had had the opportunity to open since becoming Chief Minister—saying that it was the fault of the Little Company of Mary that nothing was happening at the Calvary site—“It is their fault; the government made the allocation; it offered them land; it was up to the Little Company of Mary to suddenly make a decision”.

It was up to the Little Company of Mary to suddenly make a decision after 32 months of inactivity by the Stanhope Labor government! It took 32 months to finally make an offer on the lease on the block. And all of a sudden it was all the fault of the Little Company of Mary—the people who operate the Calvary Hospital—that nothing was happening on that site.

This is a rush to stay ahead of the game. This is the ACT government that acts quickly. On that day on 20 July the Chief Minister pointed out that, as well as opening the 20 aged care beds, of course, they had also given Goodwin Homes the nod, the go ahead for the room—it says here in the Chief Minister’s press release—“across the road” from

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