Page 3914 - Week 10 - Thursday, 28 August 2008
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appropriate accommodation for older Canberrans over the last three years. We have made significant advances in relation to the provision of aged care accommodation. Over the space of four years, we will have either delivered, made provision for, have in the pipeline or currently have under construction somewhere in the order of 900 aged care beds.
Over these last three years we have made enormous advances in the strategic way in which we plan and now deliver land and facilities for beds—in other words, supported accommodation as well as independent living units. We have a land bank. I think there are somewhere in the order of three sites which are capable of developments in excess of 100 beds as well as independent living units. It has been done through a very strategic approach, working in collaboration with the aged care sector and providers.
We have streamlined the planning processes. We have provided, as I said, a ready response capacity that allows us to anticipate and deliver aged care into the future. Just by way of example, Mr Mulcahy, projects that have been completed over the last year or so are: Southern Cross Care at Garran, 70 beds and 40 independent living units; Centacare, Aranda, 15 supported houses; Goodwin, Farrer, 19 assisted living units; the Tamil Senior Citizens, Isaacs, four supported housing; Ridgecrest, Page, 24 independent living units; Calvary, 100 beds and 78 living units; and Goodwin, Ainslie, 103 beds and 22 living units. They have been completed in the last year or so.
Currently under construction across Canberra are: Southern Cross Care, Campbell, 40 beds; Illawarra Retirement Trust, Lake Ginninderra, 100 beds and 150 independent living units; St Andrews, Hughes, 74 beds; Mirrinjani, Weston, 64 beds; Goodwin, Ainslie, 45 independent living units; and Goodwin, Monash, 110 beds and 150 independent living units. The Salvation Army at Narrabundah has a development application in for 29 independent living units. In the design phase there is: Uniting Care, Gordon, 100 beds and 86 independent living interests; Baptist Community Service, 160 beds; Baptist Community Service; Red Hill, 100 supported housing units; Mandir Ashram, Farrar, 60 beds and 80 independent living units; Morshead, Kaleen, 50 independent living units; Empowered Living, Charnwood, 50 beds.
As I said before, when beds are allocated, we can release additional land at sites across the ACT. We continue to seek to identify other areas where aged care or independent living units are available.
It is always relevant to go back to the context in which we came to government and the circumstance that we inherited. We have delivered, are in the process of delivering or have in the planning phase 900 aged care beds. We came to government in 2001, and for six years prior to that there was a Liberal government. During that six years, 14 beds—that is right, members did not mishear—were delivered by the Liberal government—that is, two and a bit beds a year. Two and a bit beds a year were delivered by the Liberal Party in six years of government. There were some teething problems; there was some delay. It is difficult inheriting the basket case that we inherited in relation to aged care and to have to jump straight into the provision of beds. There were, over that period, issues that we needed to deal with, and we dealt with them. We have delivered and will continue to deliver 900 beds in the future.
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