Page 1159 - Week 03 - Thursday, 22 March 2012
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was good to hear Vivienne Sinderberry, the president of COTA ACT, speaking of the positive response to the older persons assembly at the breakfast on Monday.
I know many members of the Assembly attended the older persons assembly in September last year and would have seen the enthusiasm and willingness to engage and contribute to debates. The important aspect for me also was that there was a wide representation of older people from across Canberra, including people who would not have been involved in this sort of forum before. I have spoken about the older persons assembly on a number of occasions in the Assembly, but I think it is worth reading again the statement by Alex Fergusson, a member of the Scottish parliament, on the opening of the older persons assembly in Scotland. He said:
The challenge, I would suggest, is not that our population is ageing but that as a society we have perhaps not given enough thought to the positive aspects an ageing population can bring. Nor have we given enough thought to its particular needs or even considered how to capitalise on the skills and experience an older society undoubtedly possesses.
So I think it is absolutely critical that older people are empowered with a strong voice today in order to ensure that our services and policies of tomorrow are fit for purpose. Today’s Older People’s Assembly should serve as a very public statement that older people’s views and their issues and ideas are important and valued in this, your parliament.
I hope that we hold the older persons assembly again in the ACT. I know there is strong support for this to happen. As Patricia Reeve said during her speech at the Seniors Week breakfast, the ACT has an ageing population which is generally healthier for longer, with significant education and experience. We know that a huge number of volunteer organisations would find it hard to function without the time and effort generously provided by older people. Their accumulated skills and knowledge are invaluable.
Organisations such as the Council on the Ageing are enormously important in promoting the rights and wellbeing of older people. COTA also promote the positive aspects of ageing and the contribution that older Australians make to the wider community. They provide avenues for volunteering, opportunities to socialise and representation to government on all aspects of life for seniors. Through surveys and focus groups, COTA have also identified gaps in services and policies and lobbied on behalf of older people to have these omissions corrected. Without them, debate in the ACT and across the country would be much less informed.
Another area in which community groups make a valuable contribution is the provision of educational resources. Lifelong learning is an important element in mental health indicators in ageing. Opportunities to learn new skills or to extend previous learning must meet certain criteria to be accessible to seniors. It must be affordable, since many retirees have limited disposable income. It must be flexible, since health and transport problems might make it difficult to attend regular classes.
There are many courses like this available in Canberra, often run by community organisations. The University of the Third Age is one of the best known, offering
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