MITCHELL ELECTORATE

Mr SIBBONS (Mitchell) (15:32): Last Wednesday, 3 November, my office hosted two senior financial forums to provide information on federal and state government benefits and concessions for residents of Mitchell aged 65 and over. The federal government provides a number of benefits, including the aged pension, a carers' pension, a carers' allowance, as well as a pensioner concession card. Whilst the state government also provides a Seniors Card and various concessions, which provide financial assistance to seniors, and while most retirees are receiving some form of government help, it came to my attention that not everyone is aware of all the financial assistance offered by the various levels of government.

Self-funded retirees have had their superannuation hit hard by the global financial crisis and are doing it very tough. Retirees on the aged pension are obviously doing it tough as well. Therefore, I think it is really important that we make sure seniors are accessing all the government assistance available to them. Because of this, we invited our senior residents to two forums, where the Department for Families and Communities as well as Centrelink each gave a presentation on what benefits and concessions are available, who is eligible for them and how they can be accessed.

I am pleased to say that the forums were very successful, with almost 200 residents attending across the morning and afternoon sessions. For those residents unable to attend, my office has organised information kits that will go out to all seniors so that they do not miss out on the information provided on the day.

I take this opportunity to sincerely thank Beryl Rowe from Centrelink and Lindy McAdam from the Department for Families and Communities for their enthusiasm and excellent presentations. I would also like to thank the many residents for coming along on the day and providing some great feedback. It was very important that we did hear the feedback and some of the issues that the residents did have. I would also like to thank a number of service providers and business and community groups that also attended the forums for providing displays and information. These included the South Australia Police, the Australian Pensioners Insurance Agency, the City of Marion Council, Medical Alert, and Relationships Australia. I really thank them for their participation.

The feedback from the forums has been absolutely fantastic, with many residents genuinely appreciating the opportunity to meet with experts from the relevant government departments, as well as meeting their local MP; and, more importantly, receiving information face-to-face, being able to ask questions and also to offer feedback.

A paper by the federal Treasury notes that the number of Australians aged 65 and over is expected to increase from around 2.5 million in 2002 to 6.2 million in 2042. The increase is greater for the number of Australians aged over 85, with an expected increase from 300,000 in 2002 to 1.1 million in 2042. With the many challenges presented to us by an ageing population, I believe that a good starting point to tackling these is to ensure that seniors know about and can access the full range of financial support which governments provide. I would also like to acknowledge Lisa, Cathy and James from my office for their fantastic efforts in coordinating the event.

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