Page 1104 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 30 March 2011
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Mr Hargreaves that it is most unfortunate that Mr Seselja and indeed those opposite, in what should be a straightforward opportunity to comment on the contribution of senior Canberrans, politicised it to the negative. But I thank my colleague Mr Hargreaves for bringing on this motion in the Assembly. I do apologise for not being here in the early minutes of the debate but I was indeed having an interesting conversation with the Official Visitor about Bimberi.
In 2009, as Minister for Ageing, I had the pleasure of launching the ACT strategic plan for positive ageing 2010-14: towards an age-friendly city. This plan brings to fruition the work of John Hargreaves that he commenced and that he championed and, as he has well and truly explained, championed in partnership with older Canberrans.
The strategic plan is a whole-of-government framework to address the needs of an ageing population. It was developed in partnership with the ACT Ministerial Advisory Council on Ageing and involved extensive community consultation and has provided the government with priorities for action in regard to our ageing population. And, of course, we are all ageing.
Goals include the need for better communication of information to seniors on such matters as services, entitlements and community organisations and groups and the need for more activity options in retirement. In this regard, our seniors clubs play an important part in the social wellbeing of our seniors and in 2008 it was the ACT Labor government that made a commitment to build a new Tuggeranong 55 Plus Club. I look forward to opening the new facility later in the year. And it was only within the last month that members of this Assembly had the pleasure of being there when Mr Hargreaves and I turned the sod for that construction.
Last year Canberra was accepted into the World Health Organisation’s global network of age-friendly cities, joining other cities such as founding members, including New York, Manchester and Brussels. Canberra is the first and only jurisdiction in this country to be a member of this network. And it puts paid to Mr Seselja’s comments that we are policy failures. Membership of that global network of age-friendly cities, which clearly cites that it is auspiced by the World Health Organisation, shows that we are on the right track.
The global network aims to service a mechanism to link cities and to ensure that the label “age-friendly city” reflects a common global understanding—cities that encourage active ageing by optimising opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life of people as they age. An age-friendly city can also be described as an inclusive and accessible urban environment.
As part of this network membership and to further the goals of the ACT strategic plan of positive ageing, we are now about to undertake an age-friendly city survey to get a baseline measure of the lived experience of older Canberrans. It will look particularly at areas of outdoor space and buildings, transportation, social participation, respect and social inclusion, civic participation and employment, communication and information, and community and health services.
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