Ms SACILOTTO - 2007-10-10
You recently travelled with representatives of Senior Territorians to Melbourne to inspect retirement and ageing facilities. Can the Chief Minister update the House on what she and her team saw in Melbourne and how she intends to progress this issue?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I welcome the question from the member for Port Darwin because, as we are all aware, and the member for Braitling only too well, we have a growing proportion of our growing population who are seniors. That is not only seniors who have been here for a long time, but we welcome to the Territory seniors who move here after they have retired elsewhere. It is great that they are joining family and friends in the Territory.
I travelled to Melbourne in the first week of September with three senior Territorians very interested in aged care facilities. They are the President of COTA, Brian Hilder, the Chief Executive of COTA, Dr Graeme Suckling and Annette Milikins who has been a long-time advocate for aged care facilities and new ones to be investigated. There were two delegations of us. We visited five senior residential facilities spread throughout suburban Melbourne and took a good look at the possible options for the Territory. As we all know, with an ageing population, the facilities being provided for ageing Australians are becoming much more innovative.
We learnt some of the key aspects that we would need to consider, which included the need for a facility to include those three stages of care: independent living, supported living, and high-level care that you need as you become more frail. We looked at the cost of entry and the stay at these facilities as well as the levels of public and private funding. One thing that did occur to all of us was how you would adapt these to a Territory style of living. For example, senior Territorians have boats or pets and visiting relations, which is much more of an issue for us in the Territory than for people in Melbourne.
Madam Speaker, I am very grateful to those we visited. They gave us a very warm welcome and they were very forthcoming in sharing information.
We are now bringing together agencies in the Territory to consolidate the range of issues we need to address. Among them – and this is right across the Territory, member for Braitling – is looking at land availability, where the accommodation is needed, the style of accommodation and the need for those high support beds. We need to identify the need and how rapidly it is growing.
My department and those three senior Territorians who travelled with me will host forums throughout the Territory to dig deeper into what it is that senior Territorians and those who are getting close to becoming seniors see as their requirements for the future. It is an important part of our growing community. We all join in wanting to see an end to getting to retirement age in the Territory and moving somewhere like the Sunshine Coast. We want our Territorians to stay here.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I welcome the question from the member for Port Darwin because, as we are all aware, and the member for Braitling only too well, we have a growing proportion of our growing population who are seniors. That is not only seniors who have been here for a long time, but we welcome to the Territory seniors who move here after they have retired elsewhere. It is great that they are joining family and friends in the Territory.
I travelled to Melbourne in the first week of September with three senior Territorians very interested in aged care facilities. They are the President of COTA, Brian Hilder, the Chief Executive of COTA, Dr Graeme Suckling and Annette Milikins who has been a long-time advocate for aged care facilities and new ones to be investigated. There were two delegations of us. We visited five senior residential facilities spread throughout suburban Melbourne and took a good look at the possible options for the Territory. As we all know, with an ageing population, the facilities being provided for ageing Australians are becoming much more innovative.
We learnt some of the key aspects that we would need to consider, which included the need for a facility to include those three stages of care: independent living, supported living, and high-level care that you need as you become more frail. We looked at the cost of entry and the stay at these facilities as well as the levels of public and private funding. One thing that did occur to all of us was how you would adapt these to a Territory style of living. For example, senior Territorians have boats or pets and visiting relations, which is much more of an issue for us in the Territory than for people in Melbourne.
Madam Speaker, I am very grateful to those we visited. They gave us a very warm welcome and they were very forthcoming in sharing information.
We are now bringing together agencies in the Territory to consolidate the range of issues we need to address. Among them – and this is right across the Territory, member for Braitling – is looking at land availability, where the accommodation is needed, the style of accommodation and the need for those high support beds. We need to identify the need and how rapidly it is growing.
My department and those three senior Territorians who travelled with me will host forums throughout the Territory to dig deeper into what it is that senior Territorians and those who are getting close to becoming seniors see as their requirements for the future. It is an important part of our growing community. We all join in wanting to see an end to getting to retirement age in the Territory and moving somewhere like the Sunshine Coast. We want our Territorians to stay here.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016