Page 347 - Week 01 - Thursday, 11 December 2008
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Through the ministerial meetings that I have been attending, I know that there are many plans for cooperation between the states and territories and the commonwealth in the area of ageing. I am sure that these will be progressed at the next ministerial meeting on ageing which our new minister in this area, Mr Hargreaves, will be attending. If he does not attend, I hope that I can go in his stead.
I am looking forward to those developments in the area of ageing because, as we know, this is not a matter of looking at our ageing population and saying, “Because we’re ageing, we’re all unhealthy, inactive and unable to participate.” We are looking to make sure that our older population, the people that are getting older, are able to participate and remain healthy and active in our community.
I am sure that we will need many new initiatives as we go forward. It is important that we work together with our community and business, both not-for-profit groups and for-profit groups, in ensuring that the government’s initiatives can be supported in the community. We need to work with our volunteers as well. I look forward to working with my government to make sure that those initiatives come forward in the future.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (3.18): I thank Ms Porter for bringing this matter forward today. We consider the ageing population and their opportunities to partake in the community to be extremely important and I have taken on this portfolio myself because of the increasing importance we see of dealing with this issue in the community as our population as a whole ages and we face the challenges together.
This is also why we took a comprehensive package for older Canberrans to the election this year. We are absolutely committed to responding to the needs of seniors, ensuring that they have appropriate support to enhance their participation in community life. We have consulted with seniors, and the major issues they face include dental health and access to it, services generally, housing, transport and income support, amongst others.
The ACT’s Council on the Ageing undertook a questionnaire of over-50s in Canberra and it looked into income levels; income levels versus rising cost of living; transport—suitability, availability and affordability; health, medical and dental; and housing—aged care facilities, accessibility and affordability.
COTA concluded in October 2008 that nearly half the home owners surveyed are concerned about meeting their financial housing commitments; 34 per cent have adjusted their diet to cope with rising food costs, buying less, buying cheaper and changing staples, including less meat and other normal staples; 50 per cent drive significantly less because of rising costs; 56 per cent of respondents do not have a bulk-billing GP; 13 per cent have stopped or reduced medical treatment because of rising costs; and a further seven per cent reduce their medicine intake because it is too expensive. These are sobering statistics for us all.
The kinds of reforms we would like to see include a waiting list for aged accommodation to assist in access and forward planning of appropriate aged-care accommodation; a land bank of sites that are reserved for future retirement village and aged-care accommodation, allowing retirees to remain close to services and amenities;
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