Page 1525 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2016
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practically rolls out. I thought that was a very interesting discussion and it elicited a whole lot of ideas.
Being an age-friendly city is not just about infrastructure; it is also about attitude, it is about the provision of services, it is about cultural issues and a whole range of things. Over 40 local governments from across Australia were present at that event as well as five state governments, and each of them brought some unique perspectives. Some common themes came up in what I thought was a very valuable discussion.
In terms of infrastructure, out of that conference came the idea for age-friendly suburbs, which Dr Bourke has talked about today. These are suburbs that have been identified as having a high proportion of elderly residents and are targeted for infrastructure improvements to make it easier, more convenient and more accessible for older residents to move in and around their community.
I embraced this idea because it does a couple of things. An age-friendly suburb is generally a people-friendly suburb when it comes to infrastructure. The idea that we could make a suburb through its infrastructure easier for people to get around makes a lot of sense. It plays out for old people who are perhaps not as confident in their walking or who, in fact, rely on a pusher or some sort of other mobility device, which then actually applies to parents pushing prams and all sorts of things as well. I want to make the point that an age-friendly city is, in fact, a great city to live in because it brings into play a lot of factors that benefit more members of the community, even though it is particularly driven and motivated by trying to support the older members of our community.
In terms of the age-friendly suburbs initiative, Weston and Ainslie were identified as the first on the list with Kaleen and Monash coming next, as Dr Bourke mentioned. The process involved an initial audit and then consultation was undertaken by the Council on the Ageing outsourced from government as a partnership exercise. Again, having gone to the recent presentation of the report, having COTA involved as a partner with the government was particularly beneficial. The key findings identified issues such as narrow and incomplete path segments, non-compliant wheelchair ramps, few places to rest and even issues of reduced visibility due to overhanging vegetation.
There is now money allocated for that project. Dr Bourke has spoken about that today. Part of my enthusiasm for embracing it was that if we can get some older suburbs right and retrofit them, then we can roll it out into other suburbs because we will have trained the government how to do these things and also it will shape future design considerations as new suburbs are built and some of these considerations are put into place.
During my time as Minister for Housing I worked with a group of elderly housing residents to deliver changes to the affordable rental scheme creating a more flexible and responsive system for the calculation of rent. It had become apparent that a flat percentage of market rate did not suit the real-world situation that many elderly tenants faced. Based on this feedback, I asked Housing ACT to undertake a review of the scheme, which found that a staged or level approach is more flexible and appropriate to the varying needs of older tenants.
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