Page 3706 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 21 November 2006
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independent living and accommodation, location of accommodation, community facilities and, of course, public transport. Vision impairment is a major problem for older people. It requires people affected by declining vision or the loss of vision to adapt to that situation—often the redesign of their living situation and the use of different communication aids such as large type, special keyboards, braille and other devices to assist in reading. But it impacts particularly on their ability to travel. If they have lived in Canberra for some time they may have lived on their own or have limited family here. Given that in so many families here everyone goes to school or work, often they live in suburbs where there is no-one else in their street.
Depending on the nature of it, a physical impairment may preclude people from living in homes with stairs, for instance, or require the installation of very expensive stair-climbing technology. It may require changing the design of bathrooms and other rooms. It may require different approaches to accessing transport and special support from community organisations. I know from my time as the housing minister that we are building those requirements into modern aged persons units, but many of the people living in the inner suburbs, where we have a predominance of older Canberrans, are living in houses that were built in the forties, fifties and sixties and that often do not meet their needs. That affects how they interact with their community; often just getting out of the house can be a burden.
In terms of community facilities, older people without the social environment of work clearly gain an important benefit from community social interaction. For some it is just going shopping; for others to the bank or to the seniors club. Some gain enjoyment in many ways through their church, their clubs and other community groups; but again they have to get to these places.
Another problem is the way we deliver our services. A particular case at the moment is, of course, Griffith library. Griffith library is enjoyed by many in the inner south and by people who often come from other areas because it is easy to park; you can park close to the front door, it is a short walk and it is a safe walk. For Griffith to be judged and shut down simply on the basis that it is too expensive is a travesty. It is clearly acknowledged that not just for families in the area but particularly for older people, and with the predominance of older people in the inner south, Griffith library really does provide a service of access, engagement and socialisation. If these people have to travel to places like Woden or Civic, as the minister so flippantly suggests, it involves more travel for fewer services, it involves longer distances and more time out and what you will see is a marginalisation of some older people simply because of the going of the Griffith library. They will have to do more travel; but there will be fewer services to accommodate that travel, so again their options are being limited by the Stanhope government.
The argument that the government points to is quite interesting. For instance, the minister tabled the service agreement as to how he came to this decision. Part 2, conduct of the review, simply says “provide options for the saving of $2.4 million through both process improvement and revised service delivery models”. So even the review of the library was not about improving library services; it was just about saving $2.4 million. So there was absolutely no consideration of older people who use the Griffith library. People from Griffith, Red Hill, Narrabundah, Kingston—all that inner south area and other areas—use Griffith library because it is easy to get into and out of. That is something that needs to be considered and that has been ignored by this government.
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