Page 466 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 13 March 2007
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her own. To make ends meet, Frank and Dominic worked after school in a local fruit shop. Their mother refused the support offered by St Vincent de Paul, as she said there were people who were worse off than they were. Mr De Marco is still actively involved in the retail sector and in property development. He is a fine example of the contribution made by many older Canberrans.
One of the consequences of being a young city in world terms is that, sooner or later—in fact, right about now as Canberra becomes an older city—the make-up of our community undergoes a significant shift. Right across Australia the population is ageing. Once Canberra was an overwhelmingly young city, a place where there were many young families. Now, of course, we are rapidly ageing, and ageing more than anywhere else in Australia.
By 2031, the over-70s will make up 15 per cent of Canberra’s population—a staggering statistic! This shift poses obvious policy and resource challenges for the ACT government. Equally, there are challenges in providing for a city of younger than average people. Many years ago I worked in the Tuggeranong Valley setting up community services to do just that. These are just different challenges.
It is important that we as a community change, respond and adapt and that we avoid stereotyping individuals into categories such as “older persons”. A stereotype, which is not borne out by research, is that because we are ageing we are becoming less active, less social, less healthy and less happy. In fact, research shows that the quality of life for many of us can actually get better as we get older.
I am sure that members would be disappointed if I did not take the opportunity to speak about volunteering and the role that it plays as people get older. The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index report, developed by the Australian Centre on Quality of Life at Deakin University from results of a survey conducted a couple of years ago shows that contentment and happiness are greater in later life. While happiness does not necessarily increase when your income level increases, it does increase as you age. The report shows that those of us who are happiest are those of us over 55 years of age, no longer in full-time paid work and volunteering up to 20 hours a week.
When volunteering is mentioned, many in the community think of middle-aged middle-class women delivering Meals on Wheels. But nothing could be further from the truth. Whilst it is true that many volunteers who work delivering Meals on Wheels are mature age women, there are thousands of other older people in our community who are engaged in a wide range of volunteering roles, such as membership of not-for-profit boards, administration and research, mentoring and tutoring in our schools, coaching and officiating for our sporting teams, protecting our environment and performing and producing amateur theatre. Those are just a few examples.
Still, there are real challenges to which we must respond as our community becomes older. One of these relates to accommodation. My personal experience with my own relatives is that, while most of us would prefer to remain living independently for as long as we can in our own home, some people will need supported accommodation. That is why, as the Chief Minister said earlier, over the past three years the
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