Select Committee on a Review of the Retirement Villages Act 1987

Adjourned debate on motion of Dr McFetridge:

That the report of the committee be noted.

(Continued from 18 June 2014.)

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (11:58): I rise today to talk about the retirement villages select committee report because it is something that is quite important to my electorate. To give you a bit of background on that, when seeking to understand one's electorate over the course of becoming a politician one of the first sources of information I turned to was ABS Census QuickStats, which is a great way to get a broad overview of where your electorate is at.

This confirmed what I knew anecdotally, that the age profile of my electorate was older than the average. I will not go through the brackets but the age brackets over 60 in my electorate mean that Schubert is about 25 per cent over-represented in those categories, so from 60 to 64, 65 to 69 and 70 to 74 Schubert is 25 per cent over-represented with older Australians. This has implications for health services, local amenities and access, and for aged care.

This is an important sector in my community and I have made it a priority to get involved and understand the issues. I have great aged-care facilities in Schubert and I have visited almost all of them.

Barossa Village CEO Phil Schmaal is a man I have met on a number of occasions and visited only a couple of months ago. Barossa Village has 165 independent living units, 55 high-care and 23 low-care beds. Barossa Village is a fantastic organisation that responds very closely to the needs of its residents. Keith Adams is the CEO of the Tanunda Lutheran Home, which is the other large-scale retirement facility in the Barossa. I had a beautiful pancake brunch with him in the new refurbished facility which has 88 independent living units and 97 high-care and 20 low-care beds.

Abbeyfield in Williamstown, which had a beautiful Strawberry Fete earlier this year, is a facility that is working with Maggie Beer to look at putting more fresh—

The SPEAKER: Could the member seek leave to continue?

Mr KNOLL: I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.