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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-10-30 Daily Xml
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POSITIVE AGEING

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (15:26): I wish to speak today about an area I have been working in since February at the request of the Premier. I am talking about positive and active ageing in our state and the ageing portfolio. In February, I was pleased that the Premier asked me to work in this area, because in South Australia we have an active older population that makes a significant contribution to our economy, with more than 570,000 people who live in our state over the age of 50.

There is 17.9 per cent of our workforce comprising people aged between 59 and 69 years of age. This figure takes into account only full-time and part-time paid employment, but we should also recognise the amount of volunteering services provided by these people and the unpaid care for other older people in their households and families.

Recently, I have had the good opportunity to visit the City of Tea Tree Gully and the City of Salisbury to attend IDOP events. IDOP is the International Day of Older Persons. It is a worldwide day to celebrate the contributions of the senior people in our society, but in our state we celebrate it for a whole month in October, which is a truly wonderful event. This year, when I went out to the City of Tea Tree Gully, Councillor Denholm and also in the City of Salisbury, Mayor Gillian Aldridge, were kind enough to host IDOP events in their facilities in conjunction with the Office of the Ageing.

South Australia has a thriving ageing population, as I have previously mentioned, and we have the largest percentage of people over 65 of all the mainland states. This makes South Australia great and a cause for celebration. Many of the seniors today are actively ageing. They are studying at TAFE or university, attending art and music programs, keeping fit through walking groups or keeping in touch with mates through Men's Sheds. They are making a difference to their communities as grandparents, neighbours, citizens and consumers.

The theme for this year's International Day of Older Persons is 'The future we want: what older persons are saying'. We are addressing this theme by engaging the South Australian community. Just 10 days ago, the Minister for Health and Ageing launched South Australia's new ageing vision, Prosperity Through Longevity. The ageing vision has been shaped through consultation with over 3,500 older people and with the advice of COTA, other peak bodies and aged care service providers.

In addition to reflecting the priorities of older people across the state, the ageing vision has also been informed by the recommendations contained within 'The Longevity Revolution', which is a report by Dr Alexandre Kalache, the recent Adelaide Thinker in Residence, which I had the pleasure of launching in May at COTA. Prosperity Through Longevity is our vision for ageing in South Australia, a vision that will bring the community together to create an all-ages friendly state. The vision outlines three areas which will be targeted over the next five years: health, wellbeing and security; social and economic productivity; and all-ages friendly communities.

Prosperity Through Longevity is a whole-of-community plan for everyone in South Australia. Today's young people are tomorrow's mature citizens. Today's busy, active gen Xs will be tomorrow's busy, active seniors. It recognises our state's remarkable diversity that every older person has a unique set of life experiences that can be vital resources for our communities and our state. It strives to grow active and healthy communities where older people enjoy wellbeing and are respected and younger people look forward to being older one day.

Prosperity Through Longevity is an innovative vision for the future and I encourage everyone to embrace it. It will drive other important work in this state. It also picks up on the work done to develop the Draft Strategy for South Australia, Safeguarding Older People 2014-21, which was released in June this year at the National World Elder Abuse Awareness Conference in Adelaide.

In conclusion, I would like to talk about some of the IDOP events that were recently held. These events through the Office of the Ageing could not have been successful if it wasn't for the Office of Ageing staff who coordinated them. I would particularly like to lay on the record my thanks to Jeanette Walters who has walked into this area and done a sterling job in creating these events with the help of Carla Politis and the rest of the team at the Office of the Ageing. It was wonderful to see them walking around these events in their green T-shirts as a great cohesive team, providing information to some of the people who attended the event—and the events I attended were well attended.

My thanks also go to the Tea Tree Gully, Salisbury and Onkaparinga councils and the good member for Frome's Port Pirie council. There were fantastic musicians, guest speakers and organisations that helped make this community event such a success and I look forward to making sure these events stay in the community in the future. Whilst a city event is wonderful, it is wonderful to take it back to the people who truly make our state great.

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