We know that so many of the conditions and diseases that we associate with ageing can often be prevented or in fact their onset delayed if we just took preventative steps earlier in our lives.

Advances in science and medical research and public health policies have meant that life expectancy for Australians is one of the highest in the world.

Today it has been estimated that the average 70 year old has four chronic conditions and consumes an average of 35 PBS scripts per year for those conditions.

I call on the Australian Government to set out the conditions upon which they will provide a taxpayer funded backing for wholesale term funding for Australian deposit taking institutions. I call on the Government it make clear the conditions upon which taxpayer funds will be used in this way.

At the last census it indicated that about 22 per cent of Australians were born overseas.

It is a fact that governments tend to put in place policies and strategies in response to current scenarios.

Australia has an increasingly multicultural society.