Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Polley for her question. The decision I took to cease the severe behaviours supplement for people with dementia was not one I took lightly. But the situation this government inherited was one where the previous government in the last financial year had budgeted for a scheme of $11 million applying to 2,000 people. Rather than the scheme designed by the previous government applying to 2,000 people and costing $11 million, in the last financial year it was going to apply to 25,000 people—a slight overrun—and it was going to cost $110 million. The projections for the next four years were that, rather than costing $52 million, the scheme was going to cost $780 million. Let me repeat that: over the next four years the projections were that, rather than costing the $52 million budgeted by the former government, it was going to cost $780 million. In fact, over 10 years it was going to cost $1.5 billion.

This is yet another example of a scheme that was badly designed by the previous government. It is important to emphasise that this was called a dementia and severe behaviours supplement. This was not the base funding for aged-care providers to support people with dementia. About half of Australia's 180,000 people in residential care have dementia. This was for people with severe behaviours related to dementia. This was a badly designed scheme with a serious cost overrun and, as a responsible minister, I could not sit back and do nothing. (Time expired)