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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Wednesday, 25 August 2004) . . Page.. 4148 ..

MR STANHOPE: Just wait. We are going to have a little conversation later, which I am going to enjoy, Mr Cornwell, in relation to your last four years in government.

In total, these developments could provide over 750 high and low care beds and 820 independent living units. The figures do not include the plans by service providers to increase the number of beds or independent living units on their own land—a completely different category of possible expansion of aged care beds provision. The Land Development Agency is presently in discussion with aged care providers for further direct sales.

The land available through the land bank and direct sales and already occupied by service providers will be able to house far more beds than will be made available by funding from the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth has announced that it intends to provide funding for only 370 allocations over the next three years. Simple arithmetic will tell all of you that we have land far in excess of the announced Commonwealth bed allocations. That is why we will continue to work with the Commonwealth to increase the number of bed allocations to allow every person in Canberra who needs aged care to access it.

In addition to just the facilitation of land and the availability of development ready land, the financial assistance to service providers from this government over the last three years has been substantial. Direct concessions to the providers of aged care facilities at the Weston, Bruce and Garran sites to date total $3.7 million. That does not include the value of the land we have announced we will grant at Monash and Hughes. So the $3.7 million is perhaps even only half of the value of concessions that we have provided.

Mr Smyth: Will grant?

MR STANHOPE: Well, it has been agreed. There is a planning process—you know that. At the request of service providers and community groups, sites in addition to those, in Kaleen, Lyneham, Chapman and Weston, are currently being assessed for suitability for aged persons accommodation. It is understood that they will be used for supportive accommodation or assisted living.

Draft territory plan variation 229 includes a requirement that 10 per cent of all multiunit housing developments of 10 or more dwellings be built to the standards and guidelines adopted for adaptable housing. Other reforms are currently being planned to deliver a streamlined land grant and planning approval process.

The Commonwealth, as a result of significant negotiations with this government, has allocated 100 beds for the site at section 87, Belconnen. I think it is a most significant innovation and one that has been led by the Land Development Agency. It is a credit to them that they have been this insightful and that they have thought laterally and been prepared to be strategic in relation to the nature of the relationship between the territory and the Commonwealth in regard to beds.

The model, developed essentially at the behest of and driven by the Land Development Agency in relation to section 87, Belconnen, will become a standard Australian model

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