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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Tuesday, 9 March 2004) . . Page.. 912 ..

95 per cent of people aged 60 and over. Each year, almost 600 new card holders join the scheme and there are also about 430 ACT businesses involved in the program.

I am pleased to say that, following the review, a range of actions is now being undertaken to ensure the program meets the needs of the seniors community. These include improving and enhancing the scheme, increasing funding and sponsorship, looking at expanding government concessions and interstate reciprocity, improving the seniors card business excellence awards, updating the seniors card directory and increasing the involvement of volunteers in the program.

This is the first government in the Territory’s history to take a strategic and proactive approach to the issues of an ageing population. The 2003-2004 ACT budget was specifically designed to assist older Canberrans. The government allocated approximately $7 million in additional funding for services and programs for older people. These funding initiatives were in addition to ongoing recurrent funding in government agencies.

These budget initiatives have helped to progress a broad range of community programs aimed at addressing the three key ageing themes of healthy ageing: older people’s housing and mature age employment in particular. We will continue to respond to these challenges and work towards an inclusive community, one in which older people feel safe and valued and where services are available to meet their needs.

I am more than pleased that Mr Cornwell has today introduced this matter of public importance: the state of aged care in the ACT. Among the many issues that my government has pursued over the last 2¼ years and where we have picked up the baton dropped by the previous government, one of them is aged care. It cannot be gainsaid and it cannot be criticised or contradicted that we have picked up in a very meaningful way issues around aged care. We have given this issue and the needs of our older people the attention that they deserve.

We did that through the establishment of a first ever Office of Ageing; we have done it through the establishment of a Ministerial Advisory Council on Ageing; we have done it through the very basic provision of additional required services, for instance the provision of respite. The funding of respite services in the ACT was nothing short of shameful. We have increased that significantly. As I said, in our first budget we increased the amount of funding by $7 million overall directly on projects or programs aimed at assisting our older Canberrans.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I am glad of this opportunity to speak to this motion.

MR CORBELL (Minister for Health and Minister for Planning) (4.07): I am very pleased to be joining with the Chief Minister in discussing this matter of public importance today. As the Chief Minister has said, the government is acutely aware of the issues regarding access to aged care services in the ACT and is working hard to address them. Aged care is a major issue not only for the ACT but for all jurisdictions in Australia. It is important to emphasise that aged care is not just about access to residential aged care places but also about the availability of appropriate community and home support services. As the Chief Minister has outlined, the ACT government is actively working to improve access not only to both residential and community based

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