Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—On Saturday, I as the Minister for Ageing had the honour and privilege to represent the Prime Minister at a celebration for a very special Australian. It was the 110th birthday celebration for Mrs Doreen Washington. She is our fourth oldest living Australian. Mrs Washington is also our oldest living World War I widow. Mrs Washington can proudly say she is also among the 60 documented oldest people in the world. While there have been various claims, the oldest recorded Australian was 114 and, currently, the oldest Australian is 112.  She resides in Victoria.

We joined together to celebrate Doreen Washington’s 110th birthday at a Collaroy RSL nursing home with her friends, staff and family—and her much loved cat, Bungan. It was a very special gathering and an absolute joy to be able to pay tribute to Mrs Washington on her very special day. The Prime Minister and his wife, Therese Rein, sent an official letter of congratulations, which was greatly appreciated. Mrs Washington was thrilled to receive letters of congratulations from the Queen, the Governor-General, the Prime Minister, the federal Leader of the Opposition, the New South Wales Premier and the New South Wales opposition leader, as well as her local federal MP, the member for Mackellar.

Mrs Washington was born Alice Doreen Rathbone on 24 May 1898 in Rockhampton, Queensland. Like many older Australians, Mrs Washington lived by herself independently until she was 103. As for her secret to long life, it could just be her unconventional and very ‘old school’ Australian diet. While I do not endorse it, and fear my daughter who came with me will use this to her advantage in the dinnertime debate, Mrs Washington eats virtually no fruit or vegetables and loves meat pies and a glass of beer. It has not done her any harm—she still walks and takes no medication. Her late husband, Private Lavington ‘Bill’ Ainsley Washington, served at Gallipoli and the Western Front. He died in 1965 and she never remarried and they had no children. Mrs Washington is a pure link with our nation’s past.

She has seen the growth of Australia as a nation firsthand and, indeed, she is older than the Federation. Remarkably, Mrs Washington has witnessed 23 prime ministers and has seen the development of airplane and automobile travel. She is part of a new ageing phenomenon—what is known as the ‘supercentenarians’— those who reach 110.

Australian academic Dr John McCormack, a senior lecturer in Health Sciences at La Trobe University, is part of international research in this area. He examines the history of identification, recording and documentation of centenarians and supercentenarians in Australia. There are 2,860 Australians over the age of 100 and that is expected to increase to 78,000 by 2055. That is more than the population of the city of Port Macquarie. At the Montefiore Home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs there are an astounding 12 centenarians totalling more than 1,200 years of experience. Currently, there are 2.7 million Australians aged 65 and over. Within 40 years that number will almost triple to around 7.2 million. Australians now have the fourth longest life expectancy in the world—after the Japanese, Swiss and the Icelanders. Australians are living longer because of advances in medicine and our active lifestyles.

This government is investing in aged and community care to service this expected and rather dramatic rise in our elderly population. Over the next four years, funding for aged and community care will reach record levels of more than $40 billion—with $28.6 billion of that on residential aged care alone. Caring for our ageing population is one of the major challenges facing our nation this century and, as a government, we take that responsibility very seriously. No government in Australian history will spend more on aged care and community care than this one. We are very proud of our plans for aged and community care. This is about planning for Australia’s future and the challenges of the 21st century. We want to ensure not only that older Australians can live independent lives and age in their homes—like Mrs Washington until she was 103—but also that they have the option to enter nursing homes if they need to. An ageing population creates so many opportunities; we can learn so much from the wisdom, knowledge and experience of older Australians. As the Minister for Ageing I continue to learn this every time I am out and about meeting our elderly Australians with none more wise and charming than Mrs Doreen Washington.

I ask leave of the House to move a motion to enable the member for Mackellar to speak for five minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent Mrs Bronwyn Bishop speaking for a period not exceeding five minutes.

Question agreed to.

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