Page 3704 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 21 November 2006
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If we look at our closest neighbour, New South Wales, and what it would cost—
Mr Mulcahy: They are just being mean.
MS GALLAGHER: the ACT as opposed to what it would cost New South Wales, there would be a big difference. I understand their argument. I do not accept it but we do need to work through it.
In October 2001 in the lead-up to the last federal election the Prime Minister, without discussion with the states and territories, made a commitment to fund a national scheme. Details were not provided until the following May, when it became clear this was a rehash of a previous offer states and territories had rejected as being unfeasible. States and territories did, however, express a willingness to continue negotiating, but so far we have not heard back from the commonwealth.
In 2004-05 attempts were made between the states and commonwealth to devise a national scheme. However, on 19 May 2005, without prior notice, the commonwealth, via a media release, withdrew its offer for national reciprocal concessions. However, on Friday, 22 September 2006 seniors card state directors agreed to progress the issue of reciprocity of transport concessions via bilateral agreements. A number of jurisdictions will make transport concessions available to ACT seniors card members. So I will update the Assembly as those discussions progress, because that was only in the past six weeks.
One of the other major forms of assistance available to older people to enable them to remain in their homes living independently as long as possible is the home and community care program. Again, this is an area where I think largely the state, territory and commonwealth governments work very cooperatively and well together. I wish I could see it across other agreements, but for some reason under HACC it works very well. Under this program the ACT government and the commonwealth government fund support services for frail older people—and young people with a disability, not necessarily relevant to this discussion—to assist them to remain in their homes and avoid premature admission to residential aged care.
One of the support services provided under the HACC program is transport. These services assist with activities such as shopping and keeping appointments and may include travel for social activities and visiting friends. This financial year it is expected that almost 100,000 occasions of service will be provided through HACC-funded transport at a cost of just over $2 million. Often this is done through community transport, which is a door-to-door service, collecting people from their home and transporting them to and from medical or other appointments, including shopping. We have many providers of that community transport here in Canberra, mainly the regional community services such as Woden, southside, northside, Belconnen and Gungahlin, and for Tuggeranong by Communities@Work.
One of the major impacts on older people’s lives is the loss of their drivers licence. Without the independence of travel, many older people experience social isolation. Both northside and southside community services provide a shopping bus that collects frail older people from their home and takes them to their local shopping centre. This provides both social support and mobility and allows older Canberrans the opportunity to
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