Page 2989 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 August 2013
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in areas of information and communications, with things like seniors’ e-News or the new, centralised Assistance website, which was launched in 2012, to provide a central point of information on concessions available to assist with cost of living expenses. Work is being done to provide a high level of information and communication.
When it comes to health and wellbeing, there is, of course, all of the breadth of the ACT health system that is targeted around that, but there are some specific things around seniors, with grants and sponsorships for activities to promote positive ageing and social inclusion amongst older people. Under that program there are a series of targeted activities. There are all sorts of other things going on that are about respecting and valuing older Canberrans, such as Grandparents Day, World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. These are the things which, again, paint the picture.
I think housing and accommodation is a particularly important area where the ACT government does provide considerable support. Obviously the provision of public housing in the ACT is the single biggest financial investment in this area, with a large number of older Canberrans paying rent that is well below market value, and that important community service obligation is being fulfilled through the public housing system.
Then there are other specific programs, for example, the recent allocation in the budget to design options for new age-specific units. That is something that Housing ACT has been very focused on in recent years, to try to provide more accommodation in that regard.
When it comes to transport and mobility, the ACTION gold card is, I think, a well-known benefit to older Canberrans, and I think this is very important because it does help promote mobility in the city. In the most recent budget, we saw the qualifying age for an ACTION gold card reduced from 75 to 70, which will provide free bus travel for an additional 9,000 older Canberrans. Clearly, this specifically lowers their living costs but also increases the likelihood of staying mobile and socially active and connected.
We also have the electronic taxi smartcard being introduced by late 2013 which will support seniors to more easily move around in their community by offering a simpler and more efficient system for clients of the taxi subsidy scheme, many of whom are frail and elderly.
One of the areas I am particularly interested in is actually work in retirement and the discrimination against older people in the workforce. There has been some very interesting recent work provided by the Australian Law Reform Commission which I have been having some quite detailed discussion about with the Community Services Directorate about how we might move forward some of the recommendations in that.
I think this is an area where, as a community, we are getting it wrong, in the sense that older workers are not valued in the way that they should be. There is a sense that people do not have skills anymore once they reach a certain age, and this is clearly a false and unfortunate perception that is out in the community and one that I think we all need to play our part in helping to break down.
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