Page 1101 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 30 March 2011
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Elizabeth Grant as President of COTA. Those of us who attended the Seniors Week breakfast were made to feel very welcome, but we also saw the wonderful work that is being done for seniors here in the ACT. We are very happy to acknowledge the work of the Council on the Ageing, highlighting the importance of seniors in our community, their work to acknowledge the value of positive ageing, to encourage discussion and action to address issues faced by seniors, and the provision of support for seniors. Those are all worthy sentiments we agree with.
The reason I will be adding to the motion, though, is because all of these things, as important as they are, are only a part of the story for seniors. It is my contention and the contention of the Canberra Liberals that there is a disproportionate impact on seniors of government policies, particularly when government policies fail. Seniors bear the brunt of that. It is worth having a debate about that. We often hear from the Chief Minister how affordable it is to live in the ACT. Ask someone on a pension, whether that be an age pension or whether that be a public service pension, whether they agree with that. For many people who are struggling to pay rent in the ACT, where we have very high levels of rent for our seniors, they very much feel that higher cost of living.
The high cost of electricity and the increases that we see as a result of government policies, such as the feed-in tariff, impact on seniors. Public transport is another. If you talk to seniors, if you talk to older Canberrans, many of whom rely solely on our bus system in order to get around, you learn that the lack of adequate public transport options affects seniors greatly.
The Council on the Ageing survey conducted in 2008 found that: 34 per cent of those surveyed had adjusted their diets to cope with rising food costs by buying less, buying cheaper, or changing staples; 57 per cent of respondents were from a single-person household; 22 per cent of homeowners envisaged having to move from their home because of rising costs, and then we get into issues around the high cost of moving as a result of very high rates of stamp duty; 14 per cent of homeowners believed that rising costs would prevent appropriate maintenance and repairs; 46 per cent of homeowners are concerned about meeting their commitments; 15 per cent have ceased private cover because of cost; 31 per cent do not have private health cover; 13 per cent have reduced or stopped medical treatment because of rising costs; seven per cent do not take medicine or take less because of costs; 47 per cent were fully self-funded; 32 per cent received a part Centrelink pension; 12 per cent received a full Centrelink pension; and nine per cent received a DVA entitlement.
Those figures are quite stark, and that is why I will now move the amendment circulated in my name:
Add, after paragraph (3)(b):
“(c) that ACT Government policy failures have a disproportionate impact on the standard and quality of life of senior Canberrans; and
(4) calls on the ACT Government to ensure that it takes into account the impact on seniors of all its policy decisions.”.
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