Page 4083 - Week 15 - Thursday, 17 December 1992
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Before turning to comments about this specific inquiry, I would like to relay to members my concern about the Social Policy Committee's broad terms of reference which enable us to conduct inquiries on some or all of the following: Health, hospitals, nursing homes, welfare, employment, housing, social security, the ageing, people with disabilities, the family, Aboriginal people, youth affairs, the status of women, multicultural affairs, industrial relations, occupational health and safety, education, the arts, sport and recreation. The Social Policy Committee has just completed its first inquiry in the life of this Assembly. With such a broad range of issues to consider, it is unlikely that the committee will be able to address many more of these issues before 1995, despite its best intentions. I believe that it is therefore imperative that the committee select its future inquiries with the utmost care and continue to strive to address the most significant social issues of our community.
Madam Speaker, I would like to talk briefly about the process of the inquiry. The Social Policy Committee approached its current inquiry thoughtfully, and initially it enlisted the expertise of the Council on the Ageing (ACT), the Real Estate Institute of the ACT, the ACT Council of Social Service, the ACT Planning Authority, the Housing and Community Services Bureau and the Social Policy Division of the Chief Minister's Department to assist us in developing our terms of reference and determining the scope of the inquiry. The committee members have also been able to visit a wide range of accommodation currently available for elderly people and have been assisted by the provision of numerous written submissions and appearances at public hearings prior to the finalisation of the report. I would personally like to thank all those people who have so ably assisted the committee in its task.
I now wish to address some of the recommendations. I will not take up the Assembly's time in addressing all of them, although I would like to. There are some 26 of them. I will make some comments on the major recommendations as I see them. Recommendation 1 is:
In future all Cabinet submissions be required to contain a statement of the effects and implications, if any, that proposed new policy initiatives will have on the provision of aged services and facilities in the ACT.
Madam Speaker, I believe that this is an important recommendation and it should really apply to all special needs groups of our community, including young people with disabilities, young people generally, families and people from non-English-speaking backgrounds. I think the Government has the opportunity to consider the effects of its policies on, in this case, the ageing of our community, and I urge them to do that on every occasion where it is appropriate.
The second recommendation is:
The Government give high priority to preventative health measures and "active" ageing when considering policies for the aged in the ACT.
Mrs Carnell mentioned in her remarks that not all aged people are frail and have disabilities, and that is a very important point for us to remember. This recommendation also recognises that, through the sensible provision of preventative health measures, less money could be spent on acute care for aged people later on.
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