Mr MOSSFIELD —Last Friday I had the honour of launching the Blacktown Migrant Resource Centre's community aged care package. The launch was very opportune, with the federal government's controversial new rules relating to nursing homes coming into effect in October.

The package provides for funds to the migrant resource centre to provide care for the elderly in their own homes. These packages will prove very popular in areas with large multicultural populations, where elderly migrants, due to language problems, may find it difficult to settle into nursing homes.

This pilot program will enable the government to assess the value of assisting people in this way. It may well prove to be the most economic and caring way of providing care for our elderly citizens. The Blacktown program employs a full-time coordinator, Maria Skibinski, and six part-time multilingual people who go into the clients' homes and assist them with their everyday chores such as shopping, cleaning and taking medication.

The migrant resource centre is targeting the Polish, Ukrainian, Maltese and Filipino communities, but the need is there to expand the program if more funds were available. I congratulate the Blacktown Migrant Resource Centre and their coordinator, Maria Volcano, on the great work they are performing in assisting our multicultural communities.