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Ministerial Conference on Ageing

The Australian Government and state and territory ministers responsible for the care of older Australians and the Australian Local Government Association have met in Canberra at the third Ministerial Conference on Ageing.

PDF printable version of Ministerial Conference on Ageing (PDF 36 KB)

Joint Communique

11 September 2009

The Commonwealth, State and Territory Ministers Responsible for the Care of Older Australians and the Australian Local Government Association met today in Canberra at the third Ministerial Conference on Ageing.

The meeting was chaired by Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot.

It coincided with a meeting of the Community and Disability Services Ministers’ Conference.

The Conference discussed the issue of transitional care places for older Australians to retain their independence after a hospital stay.

Minister Elliot updated the conference on progress in establishing transition care places. Of the additional 2,000 transition care places made available by the Rudd Government, 698 have been allocated and of these, 470 are now operational in all states and territories, with a further 228 to become operational in the coming months.

The 470 places are expected to benefit up to 3,525 older Australians a year. Each funded place will be used by an average of up to eight older Australians a year.

Transition care can be provided for a period of 12 weeks with a possible extension of a further six weeks either in the client’s own home or in a home-like environment in a bed-based residential setting.

The meeting received an outline of the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission (NHHRC) recommendations in relation to aged care and an update on the program of health and hospital reform consultations being conducted by the Rudd Government.

Ministers discussed and noted further measures to be introduced to help address the challenges of our ageing population. These included:

• The increase in pension payments;
• A comprehensive approach to risk management for emergency events in residential aged care and the incorporation of the six national principles for disaster recovery;
• Discussion on residential care and people with psychogeriatric disorders and work being conducted by the External Reference Group’s consideration of the relevant recommendations in the NHHRC Report;
• The success of the Transition Care Initiative (as detailed above);
• An update on the rollout of the $46 million Indigenous Aged Care plan; and
• Agreement of the implementation of a national guide for practical measures for community care service providers on how to respond when a client does not respond to a scheduled visit.

Australians now have the world’s second longest life expectancy. Currently, there are some 2.8 million Australians – about 13 per cent of the population – aged 65 and over. This number is expected to triple in 40 years.

• The Ministerial Conference on Ageing was attended by:
• The Hon Justine Elliot, Minister for Ageing (Chair) - Commonwealth
• The Hon Paul Lynch, Minister for Ageing & Disability Services – NSW
• The Hon Lisa Neville, Minister for Senior Victorians - VIC
• The Hon Karen Struthers, Minister for Community Services - QLD
• Mr Murray Watt MP, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister for Health – QLD
• The Hon Lin Thorp, Minister for Human Services -TAS
• Mr John Hargreaves Minister for Ageing and Disabilities - ACT
• Councillor Sam Alessi for the Australian Local Government Association

Media Contact: Minister Elliot’s Office – Kathryn Conroy 0448 249 447