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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 13 Hansard (25 November) . . Page.. 4618 ..

MRS BURKE (continuing):

Our aged citizens deserve some respect-much more than they are getting now-and to be afforded dignity in being appropriately housed. I commend Mr Cornwell for bringing this matter of public importance to the Assembly today and I support it.

MS DUNDAS (4.18): As has already been discussed today, there are approximately 180 allocated but non-operational residential aged-care places in the ACT. We have already had the debate about how this needs to be rectified as soon as possible. According to the Council on the Ageing, many older people who urgently need residential care are being denied it because of the time taken to bring allocated places on line. Since many of these people are being inappropriately kept in hospital, the problems with our waiting lists are being exacerbated.

I know what the minister said about how this is being progressed. But we need to stop viewing the number of aged-care places as the only solution to aged care. I think we need to act a little more holistically. Elderly people want to remain as part of the community rather than to be sent away to a nursing home when they are not ready for it or do not want to go.

Many elderly people need support and deserve support, and it should ideally come in a format that allows them to remain part of their community. Because of this, a number of elderly people make trips to Sydney to get specialist treatment that is often not available or difficult to get here in Canberra. More often than not they choose to make these trips by train; so we need to keep up the pressure on the New South Wales government not to cut train services from Canberra to Sydney.

The minister talked about how there has been respite care and support services provided in the community. However, we need to look at how that impacts by taking a more holistic approach to the services that members of the aged community want to access not being available in Canberra and how they can access those services in the region. I spoke recently about the need for more recognition to be given to the skills and abilities of older people in the work force. Even those who are in need of aged care can play an important role in our work forces. Older people have the experience and skills that businesses need, yet many employers do not offer jobs that suit a changed lifestyle.

Many older people have carers' responsibilities that prevent them from participating in full-time work or they are simply looking for a better work-life balance. The business, government and community sectors that serve the whole community need to understand the preferences of older people as well as younger people in terms of their employment choices, and it is a good reason for workplaces to reflect the diversity of the wider community. I think this is an area where more work needs to be done.

Mr Cornwell has already touched on the issue surrounding allocated places and land being available for the development of more aged-care units, and the minister responded to some points. I think what has been going on in Belconnen is of concern in that we have this debate about whether or not there are suitable facilities near the lake's edge to put in aged-care facilities away from the town centre-inaccessible to the town centre. But the government is saying that that is the only place big enough to do what it wants to do when, at the other end of Belconnen, next to a development that has already taken place, we have a private developer saying, "I have land here. I want to put aged persons units on it,"but being denied that opportunity.

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