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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (23 September) . . Page.. 3157 ..

MS REILLY: I will finish up quickly. I appreciate the indulgence of those across the way.

I think it is important that we listen to older people in the ACT community. There have been shameful acts in recent times by both of the Federal and Territory Liberal governments. To attack the quality of life for older Australians is disgraceful and outrageous. We are talking of people who have contributed mightily to both the Territory community and the Australian community. Some of these people are veterans of World War II or supporters of veterans of World War II, people who went through the Great Depression, people who often had no opportunity to accumulate large sums of money in superannuation - this is particularly true for women - so that they would be able to live in comfort when they were older. I am sure a number of them thought that, considering the contributions they had already made to the community, they would be looked after when they were older. Instead, they have been left uncertain as they have grown older. They have been left wondering whether they will get services so that they can live with some quality of life in our community and continue to contribute in a whole range of ways.

Previously, people were talking about what volunteers provide to our community. A number of organisations across the board would not be able to manage without the contribution of older volunteers to the work of those organisations. With respect to that work, and with respect to those people, we should be ensuring that there are services for those people at the times that they need them. People should not have to be begging or having to come to Canberra to ensure that they can get the services they need so that they can live in comfort and with some quality of life. I think it is disgraceful that we have cut the services to older people, and we need to look at what we are doing.

MR KAINE (Minister for Urban Services) (4.41): Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Government totally supports the intent of this matter of public importance. We agree wholeheartedly about the importance of maintaining services and funding for older people in the ACT community. (Quorum formed) As I said, the Government totally supports the import of this matter of public importance and agrees wholeheartedly that the maintenance of services and funding for all older people in the ACT is of major importance. The Government is quite firm in its belief that older citizens are a rich community resource and is taking positive steps to ensure that we have the infrastructure in place to cater for the needs of those older people. We are committed to ensuring that appropriate services are developed to meet their needs.

We do not have to be reminded that in less than 10 years one in 12 Canberrans will be over the age of 65, or that by the year 2020 the proportion of the ACT's population over 65 will have increased to one in eight. We do what we can for the ageing who live in the ACT, just as we do for everybody else who lives here, and in connection with the ageing what we can do is quite considerable. I will deal first with health and community care. There is no doubt that for older people the need for good health care becomes an issue of increasing importance. The ACT and Commonwealth governments and the Division of General Practitioners are working together on the coordinated care trial project to test ways of improving health outcomes. From the data collected so far

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