Page 472 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 13 March 2007
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the ACT, where it is occurring at a more rapid rate than elsewhere, and across Australia generally—action is needed to ensure that these services are available and of a high quality.
I also agree with the second part of Ms Porter’s MPI. She notes that senior citizens play a special role in the ACT community. I have certainly enjoyed my time as shadow minister for the ageing and enjoyed the various events that I have been able to attend in this capacity. I know that members on both sides of the Assembly regularly attend many of the events in which our senior citizens participate—for example, concerts and art exhibitions. I try to get to as many as these events as possible. As I said at the time I was appointed to this role, I have had a 32-year history of involvement in this area of policy—from long before being elected to this place—and I have been passionate about the importance of looking after our older citizens and the role that governments, politicians and the like can play in ensuring that the appropriate level of care is made available to those in their twilight years.
Elderly residents of Canberra play a crucial role in different community groups, either through their time or through their support. Often this contribution to the community has been made over many years. Meeting people’s needs as they grow older is an obligation and a duty that we should embrace. I want to acknowledge the Australian government for their leading role in the provision of aged services. I also thank Ms Porter for raising this matter of public importance.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Minister for Health, Minister for Disability and Community Services and Minister for Women) (4.01): We hear a lot these days about how population ageing will create problems in terms of increased demand for services at a time when the work force that pays for those services is diminishing. Although this is an issue we cannot ignore, we cannot lose sight of the fact that seniors give back to the community in many ways.
Retirees now are reinventing retirement. This will be even more the case as the baby boomer generation in the developed nations reaches the traditional retirement age. In one of the marvels of longer lifespan, so-called retirees are working, exercising, volunteering and contributing to their community as never before in history.
That is occurring because we are living longer and healthier lives, but it is also because we are spending more years in retirement than previous generations have. This cultural phenomenon is changing the ways governments approach the idea of retirement, not the other way around. The Second World Assembly on Ageing in Madrid in 2002 said:
A society for all ages encompasses the goal of providing older persons with the opportunity to continue contributing to society. To work towards this goal, it is necessary to remove whatever excludes or discriminates against them.
The promotion of positive ageing—the idea that individuals have opportunities and choices enabling them to maximise their independence and control over their lives as they grow older—is an important part of the ACT government’s response to the opportunities and challenges posed by our ageing population. Positive ageing is an important goal in itself. It also has potentially significant benefits by reducing
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