John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. Community based organisations are the lifeblood of our local regions, a point that has been repeatedly pressed upon me during my last year as representative for the electorate of Bennelong. Over this 12 months, and the six months prior on the campaign trail, I have visited many volunteer and not-for-profit organisations that perform such a huge task of promoting strong community values, social cohesion, health and welfare programs.

These activities occur across the nation, but, as Bennelong is one of the most culturally diverse regions of Australia, these groups greatly assist people here to integrate into our broader culture as well as vibrantly maintaining these beautiful, strong cultural traditions and building bridges across ethnic groups that can sometimes have troubled backgrounds and tensions in their home country.

Recently I spoke of the Australian Asian Association of Bennelong, who work on behalf of the Chinese and Korean communities. Last week I was delighted to represent our party leader at the Australia India Business Council. I have spoken previously of our vibrant and active Armenian and Sri Lankan communities, to name just a few. Over recent months I have also visited the Korean Chamber of Commerce, the Shack at Epping, Achieve Australia in Top Ryde and Minimbah Challenge in Marsfield. I have joined seniors for social club activities at the Granny Smith Day Club in Epping, been to a men's health group in Ermington and had lunch with volunteers at North Ryde Community Aid. However, with the restriction of just five minutes to talk on this very broad topic and with so many fantastic community based organisations in Bennelong, I will focus on one in particular. Next week is Dementia Awareness Week and in light of that I met with John Watkins, CEO of Alzheimer's Australia, last Friday in their offices in North Ryde. This meeting further highlighted to me the difficulties and realities of living with and caring for those with dementia.

The causes of dementia are not well understood but scientific research and the great work of organisations like Alzheimer's Australia has given us a much better understanding of this disease and its impacts on the individual and those caring for them. There are over 250,000 Australians with dementia and over 1,300 new cases each week. It is anticipated that by 2030 there will be over 560,000 Australians with dementia and by 2050 almost one million. Dementia is the third-largest cause of death after heart disease and stroke. Dementia is already the single largest cause of disability in Australians aged 65 and over.

In 2008, dementia care was estimated to carry an economic cost of $5.4 billion per annum. This is just one figure that highlights the size of the challenge that our nation is facing. Unfortunately, dementia carries a social stigma to go alongside the medical condition, having a profound impact not only on the life of the person with dementia but also on the lives of those around them—spouses, partners, families and friends.

Caring for a person with dementia is an incredible challenge. The progressive degeneration of a person's cognitive ability will often lead to a reduced ability to communicate and to complete regular daily activities. Alzheimer's Australia plays a great role and is a beacon of hope in our local community. John Watkins, the former member for Ryde, is a valuable and effective CEO and his organisation is just one example of an inspiring community based organisation that performs an incredible task both in the electorate of Bennelong and in our broader nation. All these volunteer and not-for-profit organisations deserve the recognition of this parliament and are to be commended on the contributions they make to our nation.

See this speech in context