Senator WEST (1:39 PM) —I do not want to take up much of the time of the Senate but I do want to raise a situation of a constituent I have who will not be eligible for this assistance. However, whilst he is under the age of 65—in fact, he is only 55—he has an illness or a condition that is more commonly found in older people: he has Alzheimer's disease. His wife also has a chronic illness or chronic condition and is not able to work the property.

This constituent is currently in a nursing home. If he were 65 years of age, it would be the classic situation and would fit into the intergenerational transfer with no difficulties whatsoever. The farm is valued at $340,000-odd. There is a small amount of debt on it. He has an adult son who would love to work the farm but has a job elsewhere. He does come back and do some work on the farm at weekends and spends a lot of time there. But the family will not be eligible for the intergenerational transfer, by virtue of the fact that the father is only 55 years of age and the mother is in her early 50s.

There would probably be only a small number of people that would fall into this category. I am wondering whether it is possible that the government can actually look at finding a way to assist these people, too. We have now managed to get this person classified as being under hardship conditions, for the purposes of nursing home accommodation fees and things like that. But it would be very much more helpful to this family if in fact they were able to do the intergenerational transfer, and then the family might well be able to make other claims.