Page 1082 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 March 1990
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Mrs Grassby: They have got no work. They have got to.
MR COLLAERY: Mr Speaker, there are interjections saying we have no work and that is why we are addressing this topic. I suggest that shows the piteous state of the Opposition.
Mr Berry: On a point of order, Mr Speaker; standing order 40 - I have forgotten the second number, but it is in relation to relevance.
MR SPEAKER: The objection is overruled.
MR COLLAERY: Mr Speaker, one of the problems of the aged is memory loss and, of course, that is an issue that has to be addressed. I think Mr Berry would be well-advised to address that topic earlier than some of the rest of us because, as Hansard reveals, he did advise the house yesterday that he had not read from a document, and the words "I read" appear in today's proof Hansard. I suggest that Mr Berry has a little problem today, and if he thinks we do not have any work on hand he would be well-advised to avoid a little censure motion.
MR SPEAKER: Order. Please proceed with the debate, Mr Collaery.
MR COLLAERY: I was referring to comments made by my colleague Mr Stefaniak in relation to the physical security of the aged. Perhaps I should put that in the context of the report of the National Committee on Violence. Under the heading "Aged" on page 35 it reports that the 1989 Australian crime survey which was based on interviews with respondents 16 years of age and older, reinforced some of the findings coming from earlier surveys. It said that the risk of becoming a victim of violent crime, including sexual assault and threatened or attempted assault, decreases significantly after the age of 40. The NSW homicide study also reported that risk of homicide victimisation for both men and women declined with age. The report goes on to state - and this is a learned report - that notwithstanding the recent spate of serial murders in Sydney, elderly Australians who tend to express considerable fear of becoming a victim of violence tend to be least at risk.
I think, and I am sure Mr Stefaniak would appreciate my comments, that part of the security that we need to build up for our aged is the feeling of not being under threat. We need to be quite careful in our comments about their general security in society. Mr Stefaniak is right about the perception, but I suggest that another way of treating that perception is not so much to build walls but to deal with comforting mechanisms, such as the program to which I have asked the Housing Trust to give urgent attention and which involves putting security screen doors on the appropriate dwellings in our inventory. I made that request a couple of weeks ago, in response to a re-reading
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