Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a member of parliament, I have found that older people in our society tend to be ignored to some extent. Quite often, seniors are thought of as being a burden. We constantly hear of the cost to our community of older Australians and the fact that they are a burden on our medical system. The stereotyping around older Australians is enormous. Instead of looking at what older Australians have contributed to our country this and other governments have tended to state that seniors are a burden. Far from it. In the other house, we are debating the victory in the Pacific. As we all know, our Second World War veterans were victorious in the Pacific. The Second World War veterans who stood up and fought for Australia are now our older Australians and many of them are still making enormous contributions to our society.

Any member who visits community organisations within their electorate—and I know that members on both sides of this parliament work very closely with community organisations—would know that the volunteers are mainly older people. Recently I was out doing Meals on Wheels. The couple I went out with were themselves retired, and they were going around delivering meals to other older people in the community. There are older people on every community board and in every community organisation. When it comes to child care, the number of hours of unpaid child care provided by senior Australians is enormous. If we were convert into a financial contribution to our economy the hours of volunteer work that older Australians do, we would discover that it is an enormous amount.

So I stand here today to speak for older Australians. I stand here today to argue that they deserve respect and acknowledgement for the work they have done to protect our country and to help it grow and thrive. In addition to that, if any business is smart, they will know that they need to provide services to older Australians. The northern part of Wyong Shire has set up a disability precinct and, coupled with that, they are catering for older Australians. They are encouraging to the area businesses and activities suitable for older Australians that will draw them to the area. They recognise that older Australians want to spend their money in areas where they can enjoy themselves, where there are cafes and walks and a good quality of life. And that is something we can offer people on the northern part of the Central Coast.

Every year, I hold a series of positive lifestyle seniors forums. Last Friday, I held my Belmont positive living and lifestyle forum for seniors. We had a variety of wonderful speakers providing information to help them remain fit and healthy and access all the wonderful services that are available in the community. I know that the electorate of Shortland is no different from other electorates. Every area has services and information that will improve the lives of senior Australians.

I hold four seniors forums a year. We started the year with a forum at Swansea, which was very successful. It was followed by a forum at Halekulani, which is on the Central Coast. As I said, the Belmont forum was last Friday, and I will be holding a seniors forum at Charlestown on 6 November. The first thing about these seniors forums is that there is no politics allowed; it is purely information; it is purely a venue where people can learn about what is available and ask questions of the many speakers who are there on the day. We kicked off on Friday with Judy Webb-Ryall, who is the coordinator of Stroke and Disability Information Hunter. She gave a fantastic presentation about the actions people can take to prevent stroke. She gave a fantastic expose of the causes of stroke and what to do in the case of a stroke. Stroke and Disability Information, or SADI, provides a lot of support for people in the community and Judy has been very active in this space for a number of years.

Judy Webb-Ryall was followed by the wonderful Deborah Moore, from the Heart Foundation. Deborah built on the information that was provided by Judy. She concentrated on healthy lifestyle, eating properly and exercising. Towards the end of her presentation, she got all 100 people in the room to do some exercises. They started off with a series of exercises on their chairs. Deborah demonstrated how easy it is to exercise and that you can exercise while sitting watching TV. It is all very good for your cardiovascular system. She finished by getting people to stand and do a few very simple exercises. Deborah was followed by one of our local chemists, Dimitri Pandoulis. Dimitri talked about how pharmacies can provide support for seniors. He talked about Webster packs and medical checks. He linked into Judy's presentation in relation to stroke, saying that he could do stroke tests, provide support in relation to stroke and also do continuous monitoring of blood pressure.

We then broke for lunch. After lunch Robyn McLean, from Centrelink, spoke to those in attendance at the forum. This was a really interesting session, because a number of people had questions about the pension. Once again, it was not political; this was a forum where people could ask the questions they were concerned about. Robyn was followed by Australian Hearing, represented by Linda Brindle. She talked in depth about Australian Hearing, about how important it is for people to be able to hear what is being said and about things that they can do to improve their hearing, including getting a hearing aid. Actually, one gentleman who came along to the seniors forum walked up to me and said, 'I've gotta go home, I forgot to put my hearing aid in.' We moved him down the front and he stayed for the day! The forum finished with Lake Macquarie City Council's wonderful Jenny Linton-Webb, who talked about all of the activities and services that Lake Macquarie council provides for seniors—computer courses, a blue dot service for bins and many other activities.

As well as having speakers at the forums, we also have a series of information tables. At the Belmont forum, there were people from the Belmont community garden, Computer Pals, the Heart Foundation, Australian Hearing, Lake Macquarie council and, of course, Centrelink. It was a great day and it did what it should have done—that is, provide to people information that is hard to access.