Ann Bligh's blind spot - refuses to appoint a Minister for Care of the Aged
First, take this on board – Toowoomba has the second largest population of people over 65 years of age of any city in Queensland. Townsville is first.
One in 7 of all those living in the Tooowomba region is over 65.
And yet there is NO specialist co-ordinating Minister for Ageing in Mrs Bligh’s Cabinet. And on the advice of her Attorney General Kerry Shine, MP for Toowoomba North, Mrs Bligh won’t consider appointing one.
Her nearest responsible Minister is Lindy Nelson-Carr MP who has responsibility for (now wait for it!) ALL the following - She is Minister for Communities, Minister for Disability Services, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, and Ministers for Seniors and Youth.
Lindy has been MP for Mundingburra (Townsville) since 1998. Her inauagural speech is worth reading – on http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/view/legislative
Lindy’s got quite a job, when you think about it – with “Seniors” as the last of the lot.
Five separate Ministers in Mrs Bligh’s Cabinet overseee agencies charged with various aspects related to care of the aged – Health, Fair Trading, Communities, Public Works and Housing. and Attorney General – and what co-ordination exists is by overlapping committees. This is madness.
Way back in February, in association with ALP veteran and unionist Tom Baker – also a noted writer of Letters to the Editor – I delivered a lengthy submission to Premier Anna Bligh seeking two important things – first, an independent inquiry into the burgeoning rental residential industry targeting the aged market and second the appointment of a special Cabinet Minister for Ageing .
Tom is 88 this year and I have just turned 80. We are near neighbours in a rental residential retirement village which is presently very good but has an unaccountable and chequered history with changes of corporate and local management.
After long delay, the Premier referred the submission to her Attorney-General Kerry Shine for review and report – and after further delay and a nudge from the Premier – Shine rejected the need for inquiry into the industry and declared that the existing diversified responsibility for Care of the Aged was satisfactory.
Since then there has been a convulsion in the affairs of the operating company whose share price has plunged to 6 cents, with more than 30 of its managed villages which are owned by a major corporate investor, being hived off into the corporation’s own management division.
No Kerry, of course there’s NOT the slightest need for an independent inquiry into this industry. And no Kerry, these are not villages for the Aged, Very Aged and Frail. Not at all. Why some of us are only in our 90s.
Kerry, remember that Toowoomba’s YOUR city! This is happening under YOUR nose. Why don’t you get in your car and have a look instead of hiving the affair off to your policy advisers.
NOTE: Scroll down to remind yourselves of the full lists of the Cabinet Ministers in both the Rudd and Bligh Governments. If you know who they are, you can get at ‘em more easily
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