HOME AND COMMUNITY CARE PROGRAM

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Families and Communities, Minister for Housing, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Disability) (15:42): I thank the member for Bragg for reinforcing the comment that I made in question time yesterday. If people listened very closely to her reading out her letter, they would have picked up on the tone of her correspondence, even if they did not get it from her voice, which was delivered so softly and beautifully today—a sound we do not normally hear from the member for Bragg.

I made the point that Adelaide Hills Council is funded by Home and Community Care for three projects, in excess of $533,000 per annum. They receive $343,200 recurrent for home assist programs. That provides assessment, client care, coordination, domestic assistance, home maintenance, home modification and, importantly, social support and transport. I will come back to that in a moment. They receive $61,500 recurrent for a collaborative project that funds a project officer to fund collaboration, networking and training between service providers across the region. Also, the Hills seniors community program receives $128,500 for centre-based day care.

Adelaide Hills Council undertook, as I understand, an assessment of the service to the Uraidla seniors program and, in correspondence sent to the federal member for Mayo, of which I have a copy—

Ms Chapman: Which I sent to you.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: Which I received elsewhere, thank you very much.

Ms Chapman: I sent you a copy.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: Well, you did, but I already had a copy. Thank you very much. They described Uraidla's senior citizens as being 'very able-bodied, including a majority of people able to drive themselves'. They said the location of the program at the Uraidla football clubrooms, which the member for member for Bragg points out she has visited both before and after. So, congratulations for the upgrades.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: Have I been to Uraidla football club? You have probably been there once before and once after. Well, good on you as the local member. Their concern was occupational health and safety issues at that particular location. They also then offered the senior citizens some assessments to ensure that they fitted into the centre-based day care program. The seniors, as I understood it, were not accepting of that. They were offered a different location, and they were not accepting of that.

One of the clients proposed the Summertown Uniting Church to the council, and I understand they are currently liaising in relation to that, but they make the very strong point that a social support program, which they deem these people fit into and where the majority of funding goes, fits the Uraidla senior citizens much better than taking the precious dollars from the centre-based day care, which would be for much frailer aged people.

Let me make the point that this is a decision that is made by the Adelaide Hills Council. We provide them with home and community care funding and they are making the determination of which programs sit within which funding guideline, not the state government.