Mr McMULLAN (2:53 PM) —My question is to the Minister for Aged Care. Minister, are you aware of the comments from the Chief Executive Officer of Aged and Community Services Australia this morning on ABC radio concerning the accreditation agency? He said:

Didn't the Australian Nursing Home and Extended Care Association also state last year that the agency:

Minister, aren't the doubts of the sector justified given your appointment of your own campaign manager to the board of the agency? Hasn't this political appointment undermined the credibility of this supposedly independent agency?

Mrs BRONWYN BISHOP (Minister for Aged Care) —I know that the member opposite never lets facts get in the way of a good yarn, but Mr Lang, the gentleman concerned, was in fact appointed in 1997, long before I became the Minister for Aged Care, and he was appointed to that board because of his expertise in dealing with veterans and war widows. Indeed, the veterans' community makes up a very important part of aged care. As a result of recommendations from a council which advises the Department of Veterans' Affairs, I agreed that veterans would be people with special needs for the purposes of allocations of beds for this current round. I think that Mr Lang serves on that council as well. He has long experience. He is a former member of the RAAF—he served in BCOF, in the occupational forces in Japan, and is a well respected member of the veterans community. Mr Lang was appointed in 1997 and was reappointed by me in 1999, and he is carrying out his job. For me, the criteria in appointing people to the board are whether they do the job well and whether they have the credentials for the appointment. I was unaware that being a member of the Liberal Party excluded one from serving in public office. I can simply say that the board is behaving independently, as it should, and in accordance with the Corporations Law, to which it is obviously subject.

If I might say one thing about Mr Mundy: I found his comments were quite interesting. His main objection was that the government appointed the directors to the company. Of course it is a government appointment, as it properly should be. We established this corporation to be an independent board. It carries out its functions in accordance with its act and in accordance with the Corporations Law in order that the welfare of individual older Australians can be looked after. The ANHECA board, as I said, put out its own press release today, which I found was quite inappropriate.

I would like to add to Mr Francis Sullivan's comments. He is a member of my compliance and accreditation forum but he has not been able to come to the last few meetings, so he has not realised that we have appointed a working group to investigate the operation of the accreditation system. That is chaired by Mrs Mary Little from the advocacy group in Victoria, because I wanted it to have a consumer focus. In the initial consultations with consumers—that is, residents themselves and their families—this is what they are saying:

They say that some of the providers did not give them enough information and they want more, and then they finally say:

They want to have a say in how care is delivered to them. That support they get from me 1,000 per cent, and that is what the board is designed to support as well.