Page 2623 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 24 August 1993
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At the present time the situation is that the Attorney-General's Department is reviewing the draft legislation. I am sure that members would agree that the age discrimination law is, again, a very complex matter. We have to be extremely careful to ensure that those jurisdictions where age discrimination is already operating are dealing adequately with the major issues and to ensure that our legislation, when it comes forward, also deals adequately with those issues and in the light of experience in other places. We expect to present that legislation to the Assembly in November of this year; so there is some progress there, Madam Speaker, which I am pleased to report to the Assembly.
Mr Kaine also commented on funding for the Council on the Ageing. I believe that COTA provides a very valuable service to the community and, of course, also to the Government, and we acknowledge and appreciate the contribution and the advice that COTA gives. The council receives funding from several sources within the ACT Government. The recurrent operational funding is provided to the Council on the Ageing from the community services grants program which is administered by the Housing and Community Services Bureau. That is one source of funding. This grant is automatically indexed in accordance with the consumer price index. Additional funding is also provided for the operational costs of the Hughes Community Centre, and a separate grant is made to the Carers Association which is administered by COTA. I understand further, Madam Speaker, that the Council on the Ageing also receives funding from the ACT Cultural Council in order to coordinate and deliver the activities for Seniors Week. This is a separate bundle of funding from the recurrent funding I mentioned. The project grants approved by the Cultural Council are given on a one-off basis and, although the Council on the Ageing has received funding for each year that it has applied, there is no guarantee that this funding will continue.
Funding for Seniors Week has varied over the years. In 1990 it was $8,500. It was intended to provide the Seniors Week event with a funding base. In 1991 and 1992 the funding was significantly increased to $22,000. That increase was provided in order to raise the standard of the Seniors Week event and to give it a higher profile in order to attract private sector funding. In 1993 the Cultural Council took the view that the event was well established and that the Council on the Ageing could seek other sponsorship, which they have done. Accordingly, the funding was reduced for this year to $15,000. That still is a substantial increase on their initial funding of $8,500. So, Madam Speaker, I would submit that the Government does make a very significant monetary contribution towards COTA. In addition to all of that funding, we also make a contribution towards the directory of services for the ageing in the ACT which is published each year by COTA - and a very valuable directory it is, too.
Madam Speaker, Mr Kaine raised also the issue of concessions. He should be aware that the Commonwealth Government recently has had the issue of concessions under review and has made quite substantial changes to their concessions regime. The Commonwealth changes, I believe, have delayed our own review of concessions because I felt that we needed to move in harmony with those major changes, that we needed to take account of them. I can assure members that the major review of concessions has been completed. I recognise, further, that ACT recipients of pensioner health benefit cards ought to have access to concessions similar to those granted to eligible New South Wales residents when they are travelling between Sydney and Canberra. I have taken up that issue on a couple of occasions with New South Wales Premiers, with both Mr Greiner and Mr Fahey - not to any great avail, but I will continue to pursue it.
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