Page 1071 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 March 1990
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I would like to say to Mr Wilson that our committee was concerned about concessions, the former Government was concerned about concessions and, as Ms Maher has already said, our Government is concerned about concessions. I want to assure him that we will pursue the matter. I think he is quite right to say what he has said in his letter. I do hope that people over 60 - over 65 in the ACT - will have equal rights to the people of New South Wales on these matters which affect people in both communities.
I see time is moving. I have not any doubt that in terms of the future life of our nation, our Commonwealth, the needs of the ageing and especially the work of the ageing will be a very considerable matter. I have asked one member of my own staff to concentrate on this as a particular concern for the next two years while I am ageing in that period. I do believe that we have to address this, not in terms of people being frail but of people being part of the work force. Of course, people are frail, whether they are 5, 25, 45, 65, 75 or whatever, and their needs should be addressed in a health way. What we have to look at is a new process of social change in which greater and greater proportions of our society will be over 65. We have to look after them in the way that we would for all others in the work force.
MR JENSEN (11.26): One of the things that I want to pick up in relation to the matter that is before us, before I start talking about some of the planning issues of this report, is the comment by the Leader of the Opposition about our commitment to aged persons within the migrant or ethnic community.
My colleagues Dr Kinloch and Ms Maher have referred to our commitment to this and to our policy. What I would like to do is to refer very briefly to a project that is currently in the process of being developed and processed through the system in relation to this very issue. The project has been provided with a substantial injection of Commonwealth funds and a substantial injection of funds from that community itself. Last year they sought from the Government - in fact, the Government of the time - a site on which they could establish this particular facility for their group. This is not unusual; it is something that has happened in Canberra in the past. There are a number of these types of developments scattered around the community.
Last week I had meetings with the representatives of this particular group. The proposal which they have put forward and the location on which they have agreed as appropriate will now go out for public consultation with those residents nearby who may be affected, or who perceive they will be affected, by that particular program. Once that process has been completed, the offer of the lease will be made. To ensure that there are no delays, officers of the Office of Industry and Development and the planning authority are already working closely with the community during this period of public consultation to ensure that
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