Senator McLUCAS (2:39 PM) —My question is to the Minister for Ageing, Senator Santoro. I refer the minister to the decision to award Mr Russell Egan Jr, the owner of a vacant block of land on the Gold Coast, 94 bed licences for a yet to be built nursing home. Can the minister confirm that Mr Egan is now free to sell his company, complete with its 94 phantom bed licences, to the highest bidder? Hasn’t Mr Egan himself claimed on the internet that he could sell the bed licences on the free market for a total of $3.7 million? Isn’t this why Mr Egan has boasted that he ‘hit the jackpot’ and that it was ‘the best Christmas present ever’? At the same time as Mr Egan is bragging about cashing in his jackpot from taxpayers, aren’t elderly Gold Coast residents forced to wait in line for yet another 94 phantom beds to materialise?

Senator SANTORO (Minister for Ageing) —Senator McLucas would be very well aware that the process of allocating aged care places to any aged care provider within Australia is a process that is totally independent of the minister. It is a process, as all opposition senators should know if they do not know, that is judged against a set of criteria which is very extensive and which incorporates criteria way beyond bed readiness.

It is important that I confirm to the Senate what I confirmed when the media very erroneously suggested that the allocation process may have been influenced because he was a mate. I had nothing to do with that particular decision. In fact, I inform the senator that I was not aware until it was brought to my attention that the company that received those places was associated with any interest that Mr Egan was associated with. Any suggestion to the contrary is quite scandalous.

I also inform the Senate—as any astute shadow minister or indeed any astute senator would be aware—that places are allocated on a provisional basis to providers that have a proven track record on many criteria but in particular on their capacity to bring those places on line and to then provide quality aged care. Obviously I sought a briefing by my department as soon as the matter of that particular company being successful in the tendering process was brought to my attention via the newspapers, and I have been informed by my department that that particular provider has been in operation for a lengthy period of time, has provided exemplary aged care for a long period of time and, in the opinion of independent assessors and selectors, was judged to be capable of being allocated places and of bringing them on line within the expectations of the department.

So I do not know what Senator McLucas or anybody else who has made any comment in relation to this issue is trying to get at, because I again inform the Senate that it was not just that provider that was allocated provisional places; in fact, there are many providers right across Australia. I have not done a check of any known or indeed unknown party affiliations of other providers that were allocated places. There may even be Labor Party members who may have received provisional allocations, but I can say that there are many other providers that have received provisional places in the expectation that they will build and that they will provide aged care as soon as those places become operational.

This is nothing new. It has been happening since the current allocation process started, which, I again stress, is an independent process—independent of the minister. I could not understand Senator McLucas’s exhortation to me to reverse the decision or to somehow allocate places to the provider that missed out. Senator McLucas’s suggestion to me is something that the act prohibits me from doing—that is, becoming involved in the allocation process. That is one piece of advice from Senator McLucas that I will not be taking up. (Time expired)

Senator McLUCAS —I ask a supplementary question, Mr President. Can the minister confirm that Mr Egan is now free to sell his company, complete with its 94 phantom bed licences, to the highest bidder? Aren’t Queenslanders already waiting for 3,660 phantom beds to materialise in their state? Isn’t the shortage of aged care beds in the Gold Coast region already the largest shortage in the state of Queensland? Why is the minister happy to allow his Liberal Party mate to hit the jackpot by playing the system while doing nothing to provide the aged care beds that frail and elderly residents on the Gold Coast so desperately need?

Senator SANTORO (Minister for Ageing) —Again, Senator McLucas seeks to verbal and to slur me. There are two main reasons that places are not filled. One reason is that they are allocated on a provisional basis—and that needs to happen because proper planning requires that some places are allocated on a provisional basis. The other reason—and I have explained this to Senator McLucas and to the Senate, and the industry understands that this is the case—and this is an example, is that local government authorities are very slow in approving DAs which will bring aged care facilities into operation. To remedy that, fairly shortly I will be announcing some very serious initiatives which will help overcome that particular problem.