Page 3515 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 12 September 2017
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Employment for older people has been recognised as a problem for a very long time. I do not know if everyone here is aware but every award that has provisions for redundancy normally gives an extra week or two if the person who has been made redundant is over the age of 45—not 65 but 45—recognising the considerable prejudice in the employment market against people who are not even so much older as just not younger.
Volunteering is very important and I am very pleased that the government is putting emphasis on that. But employment is as well, particularly in terms of older women. Quite a number of my friends will just say, “I have to work until I die because the old age pension is not going to be enough to live on.” Due to their circumstances earlier in their life they basically have not got any money—superannuation—and they are probably privately renting. Working is not just a nice thing for civil inclusion, it becomes a necessity for many older people. It is also a great thing in terms of actually feeling valued for your contribution if someone will pay you for it. That is how our society, rightly or wrongly, works.
Another area that I was particularly pleased to see was the ACT government consulting about the recommendations outlined in the report of the Australian Law Reform Commission’s inquiry. It is an issue I am concerned about and I will be actively monitoring activity in this area. I would really like to see elder abuse awareness extended to other cultural groups, using the Bangladeshi Seniors Club as an example. Elder abuse is an insidious issue in our community and one about which there cannot be too much awareness. I speak as a daughter who had parents, due to the lack of any alternative option for my parents, for quite a period in aged care which had lost its accreditation. Elder abuse is alive and well.
I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the recommendations the ACT Greens provided to the ALRC inquiry. The ACT Greens strongly supported the proposal that public advocates or public guardians should have the power to require a person other than the older person to firstly furnish information; secondly produce documents; or thirdly participate in an interview relating to an investigation of abuse or neglect of an older person.
We support the introduction of an oversight board such as a safeguarding adults board. We support the proposal to set up a public register of enduring powers of attorney and to ensure that sufficient safeguards are in place to ensure data privacy and security. The ACT Greens also support the suggestions contained in the discussion paper that a code of banking practice be reviewed to require banks to train their staff on the nature and impact of family and domestic violence, including economic abuse, and on identifying customers who, when making an application for credit, may be experiencing domestic and family violence.
The ACT Greens support the proposals regarding the establishment of an official visitors scheme for residential aged care. We note that this is a significant gap in the ACT because the ACT government has official visitors schemes for other institutions, for other places where people are effectively detained. But as aged care is largely a federal matter, and thus the ACT government has no oversight or official visitors scheme for aged care, this issue remains an ongoing concern. I am particularly pleased
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