How does this guy get away with all he has done in the past? We are stilll waiting for the momey you were supposed to pay back Winston.

Again Winstone is big on rhetoric but short on actual facts. Why does he not show the actual level of profits companies that own rest homes recieve and compare with what they could get in other "big profit" investments. He fails to mention the overseas owned Not for Profit companies that do not pay dividends but return any money made to the facilitites they run. He also fails to mention the funding role of government and that in real terms the funding to aged care has been declining for some years while costs have been increasing. Some of these increasing costs are due to the ever increasing accountabilities placed on facilities which, like many laws, increase the burden on those who already are working hard to provide a high standard of quality care while being ignored by those who are not. It is governmental philosophies that have pushed aged care into the business model, necessitating a profit outcome, so the businesses that operate them should not be criticised for doing well what governments have wanted them to do, ie run as profit making businesses. Mr Peters has been in politics long enough to have tried to change the fundamental model from which New Zealand provides aged care and has he done so? I suspect he sniffs an opportunity to get back into parliament or is it that he is developing an acute case of caring about this issue as his own potential need for aged care draws closer?

I have a cunning plan...lets get all the NZ Companies, and individuals who own businesses and commercial real estate overseas to relinquish their holdings and profits and do the honourable thing and give it all back......... what planet are you people on.

Some of the men commenting here have very little experience..I worked in an elderly care hospital for three years. When I started there it was owned by a Christian Trust..it was bought out by an overseas corporation. Immediately,they started cutting everything. They changed to cheap, nasty ,incontinence products. The quantity and standard of food declined. Ancillary staff were deemed unnecessary. The place became lean mean and hungry..they employed a weird manager and did the same at another facilty. At another place the first thing another corporation did was halve the food bill. Many patients did not get any bread.. As usual everything Winston says is true.

Gotta love Winston

He might only ever pop up with the same scare mongering tactics every 3 years but he knows there's enough bigots out there to keep him in the running. If there's ever a book written on how to be a politician he deserves his own chapter.

Now that he's attacking foreigners once again - while pretending to be the pensioners champion it won't be long before he attacks Maori and throws a financial consiracy or two in the mix for good measure.

I don't like you... but it was a little boring without you

As someone who works for a large foreign owned provider of aged residential care, Winnie is well wide of the mark when it comes to facts. Around 70% of the aged care homes in New Zealand currently are run by NZ people or NZ controlled organisations (around 20% are Australian and 10% is British). If we had politicians who were willing to deal with the real issues of caring for older people and the strategies we should adopt as a country instead of cheap talk and grandstanding, then we might make a difference for older people in care.

Winston is right I know of caregivers with many years of service, qualifications, etc who earn about 50 cents an hour above minimum wage. They work alongside many unqualified people whose standard of care leaves a lot to be desired but the overseas owners, while charging premium prices to the oldies, keep staff working on a pittance. Sadly, most experienced caregivers, because they have a propensity to really care, are exploited in spectacular fashion. Government does little to help, the Nurses union largely does little for this sector as well - it is gross!

Funding was increased by Ruth Dyson in 2007 however it didn't flow through owing to both DHBs and businesses absorbing most of it (Geoff #3). Elders or seniors deserve more respect than 'fosils' also.

Nothing new here, Winston playing the fear card to get votes from the growing population of our elderly citizens. What needs to change is our attitude to our elderly citizens, not seeing them as a problem to be put into a home but a family member to be cared for, including as part of the family unit rather than as a separate part.

Winnie the pooh. If there is so much money in running one of these places why does he not not invest his own money in owning one. Sucessive governments have not increased the payment for each fossil so only large corporates can afford the scale of operation required. Winnie yet again, or is it still, tells great stories and ignores all facts.