Page 1102 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 30 March 2011
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The reason I am moving this amendments is that, although the support that is given directly through Seniors Week and other things is important, the far more important aspect from our perspective in relation to the impact on seniors is the overall performance of government when it comes to services. It is seniors who feel it, whether it is housing affordability, cost of living, public transport, and particularly in areas like health.
In our health system at the moment it is many seniors, as Mr Hanson would know, who are on our elective surgery waiting lists. They are having to wait a long time, often with very painful conditions, because our health system is not performing up to scratch. I have some specific figures in relation to seniors. In 2009-10, one of the key indicators for health—improving hospital access times for persons aged over 75 years—had a result of 41 per cent of those aged 75 years or more waiting more than eight hours from commencement of treatment in ED to admission to a ward.
These are the areas of government service delivery that impact directly on our seniors—when they cannot get into a ward, when they cannot get the treatment they need as quickly as they need it, when they cannot catch a bus when they need it, when they cannot afford to pay the rent because this government has not managed its land supply or any of the areas of the planning system to ensure that there is more affordable product on the market for renters.
The opposition are very happy to support all aspects of Mr Hargreaves’s motion. But my amendment is important because it tells the other part of the story—that is, that seniors do feel it. The amendment calls on the government to be cognisant of seniors in developing its policies. When we look in recent times at some of the policies that have put upward pressure on the cost of living, I am not sure the government have been taking account of seniors. I do not believe that has been the case. It is certainly not demonstrated through the kind of policies that have been pursued.
I will pay tribute to some of the organisations that do a lot of great work for our seniors. There are far too many to mention, because any number of charities work with seniors. There are specific seniors organisations. I am particularly familiar with Woden Seniors and the wonderful work they do. Anne Murray, the president, does a sensational job, and I pay tribute to the wonderful work they do in building a community.
We also have groups like the University of the Third Age, Probus, the Association of Independent Retirees, and any number of other organisations, including the Older Women’s Network. I pay tribute to them, because many of these community organisations make the lives of seniors better by providing support, fellowship and, in some cases, very practical levels of support that are very necessary.
I commend my amendment to the Assembly. I commend Mr Hargreaves for bringing forward the motion. We are very happy to support the motion, but we believe it should be added to, to take account of the real cost-of-living pressures, in particular, on seniors and the real impact of failures in government service delivery. Let us acknowledge that that hurts our seniors more than many other parts of the community.
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