Page 1520 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2016
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families, volunteering and getting involved in community activities. It is with this mindset that the ACT government recognised that it has to be about choice, and to make sure that government, business, community organisations and individuals value the benefit of older people participating in our economic and social life.
The ACT government is committed to supporting and effectively responding to the needs of mature age workers. We are achieving this by working with a broad range of community partners to develop mature age workforce solutions across Canberra. Our range of mature employment initiatives in the ACT must ensure that the valuable corporate knowledge, skills and work expertise of our mature age workers are not lost to the ACT workforce.
The statement of intent endeavours to create a collaborative framework with a focus on activities in the ACT which have the potential to deliver improved employment outcomes across the age spectrum and which maximise active engagement, access and independence to the workforce in the ACT. The statement of intent brings together the ACT government, the Illawarra Retirement Trust Foundation, and the Age and Disability Discrimination Commissioner and Ambassador for Mature Age Employment, the Hon Susan Ryan AO, to work collaboratively on a range of projects to tackle the issue of age discrimination in the workplace.
The upcoming ACT Career Check Up Expo on 29 June 2016 for mature workers aims to do that, and perhaps Mr Doszpot could take advantage. The Career Check Up Expo is an initiative of the Illawarra Retirement Trust Foundation and is being delivered in partnership with the Australian Human Rights Commission and the ACT government to provide seniors with a one-stop shop for planning their future and getting the right advice about working and retirement.
The ACT government recognises that Canberra is a town that is constantly evolving, and is being shaped and refined to become a living and sustainable environment that will provide our older Canberrans with an exceptional quality of life in an age-friendly city.
Mr Doszpot’s motion suggests that the government is ageist. Far from it. The initiatives I have outlined today are a hallmark of a government that works with its seniors to identify opportunities to enhance the lives of our older citizens. This government will continue to improve outcomes for the ACT’s seniors in economic and social participation by getting on with the job of implementing the ACT active ageing framework. I move the following amendment that has been circulated in my name:
Omit all words after “notes”, substitute:
“(a) the ACT has one of the fastest growing populations of people aged 65 and over in Australia and that this trend is expected to continue;
(b) the barriers currently experienced by some mature age workers, preventing them from gaining meaningful employment; and
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