Dr Kerryn Phelps, AMA President - Aged Care Summit 2001, Canberra

the Minister for Aged Care, the Honourable Bronwyn Bishop;

the Shadow Aged Care Minister, Senator Chris Evans;

and Democrats Aged Care Spokeswoman, Senator Lyn Allison.

I'm sure they are all pleased to be here among friends at this late stage of a torrid election campaign.

A warm welcome, too, to all the delegates to this Summit.

Your contributions over the next two days will provide valuable input to future aged care policy in this country.

Who knows? We might even get a message or two through to the decision-makers before Saturday week.

I announced back in July at the National Press Club that the AMA would be hosting this Summit.

At that time I was determined that aged care would be one of the key policy areas of this campaign.

I spoke quite a bit about aged care at the Press Club. The central theme was to get people to focus on the human side of aged care.

It was there that I called for more double beds in aged care facilities as a way of recognising that our elderly are emotional human beings who love and are loved.

They have feelings, relationships, partnerships - some lifelong, some new - that should not be forgotten or ditched simply because they now live in residential aged care.

They should be allowed, encouraged even, to express their feelings and share their lives in the same way they have all their adult lives.

Some of you agreed with that view. Others didn't.

The important thing is that people started talking about putting compassion back into the aged care debate.

People started talking about being old as a new beginning, not 'the end'.

The double bed was a metaphor for care, for love, for recognition that old people can have relationships, too - that our parents and grandparents hadn't packed away their emotions with all their other worldly belongings when they moved into the 'brave new world' of residential aged care.

But here we are a few months later and the word 'bed' is still the defining benchmark for aged care policy.

Surely we can do better than that.

Surely we can inject some genuine care and compassion into this debate.

The aged care bed is just the starting point.

What about the purpose-built facilities to house the beds - for the long term?

What about the professional staff - the nurses, the doctors, qualified carers, and the administrators - to provide quality care and support - for the long term?

What about the Government funding - for the long term?

What about the responsible Government policy - for the long term?

And what about a coordinated effort to change community attitudes to the elderly in our community?

The change of attitude must come from the very top if we are to change perceptions.

Aged care - at home, in the hostels, in the nursing homes and in the hospitals - should not be viewed as 'the end of the road'.

Aged care must not be an excuse for people to surrender responsibility for their mothers or fathers, aunts or uncles, or grandparents.

Aged care must not mean 'out of sight, out of mind'.

In a perfect world, aged care facilities would be places where our older citizens would willingly choose to go…safe in the knowledge that their health and well-being and companionship would be ensured.

We are not in that perfect world, but we should at least be working towards that goal.

It'll be our turn one day. Self-interest is a great motivator.

Just picture yourself being carted off to an aged care facility today. Leaving your home and all that is familiar to you behind. Unable to make independent decisions about when to go to bed, what to eat, or when to go for a walk and where.

Imagine what it's going to be like in 10, 20 or 30 years' time if things don't start improving today.

Magnify your discomfort a thousand-fold!

So, where are we in the aged care policy debate this election?

I'm sure we all agree that we started out from a low base.

The Coalition, having initially said that all was well, last weekend announced an increase of around 30,000 new operational aged care places by June 2006.

This promise is based on a costing per bed of $68,500. Because the industry sets costing per bed more like somewhere between $100,000 and $120,000, some questions remain about the reality of the funding.

Nevertheless, if the 30,000 places are delivered, it is a good thing.

Also welcome is the promise of a $200 million increase over four years in residential care subsidies. The success of this is based on getting the funding formula for indexation right.

There is also money to encourage more nurses into aged care, but unless there is wage parity this just won't happen.

I'd like to make particular mention of the new emphasis on community aged care places.

What is lacking is some incentive to get more GPs back into aged care. My colleague, Dr Gerald Segal, will have more to say about this over the next couple of days.

Labor, in the shape of Senator Chris Evans, has been shadowing the Aged Care Minister quite literally over the last couple of years.

He has been vigilant in picking faults with the Government's approach, but does Labor have the answers in its policy?

For the most part, the answer is 'yes' - Labor has responded to many of the recommendations put forward by the AMA and the National Aged Care Alliance.

There is funding for new beds, community care, respite care, transitional care and a commitment to a national benchmark for standards of care.

Workforce issues for nurses are to be addressed and there are plans to cut red tape.

There are plans, too, to move young MS and brain injury sufferers out of aged care facilities to more appropriate accommodation - a much needed initiative to give some dignity to these young people.

Again, nothing specific for GPs, and again, some questions over the adequacy of the funding.

The Australian Democrats are committed to funding aged care adequately.

More specifically, the Democrats policy addresses the need for special dementia units, wage parity for aged care nurses, and a focus on caring for the elderly at home.

Thank goodness for election campaigns! Without them we might not ever get our politicians to admit there are problems with the system.

The reality is that it takes an election - or a spectacular headline - to get the community to focus on the problems in caring for our elderly citizens?

This sudden improvement in hearing acuity and policy frenzy is welcome because it will get results for the sector whichever way the election goes.

But there is still one important element missing - the future. The next generation of older Australians and the one after that.

We need long term planning and brave decisions on the structure, infrastructure and management of an industry that will serve an ageing Australian population.

The people at this Summit have the knowledge, the expertise and the passion to set the course for proper care for our elderly well into the future.

It is time to get your ideas happening. Let's hope by tomorrow afternoon we have the makings of a blueprint to hand on to our political leaders - a blueprint to shape policy for many elections into the future.

Maybe we'll one day see a bipartisan commitment to aged care solutions for Australia's future generations.

I thank Bronwyn, Chris and Lyn for joining us here today and I declare the AMA Aged Care Summit 2001 officially open.

Thank you.