Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on an event that is taking place in my electorate today, which I would have dearly loved to have attended. The participants of that event deserve our appreciation and collective thanks. Today is the AGM and official opening of the new premises of Multicultural Aged Care Inc. I expect that all members here or their acquaintances have had one or more loved ones age and in their latter years become in need of more care than either their spouse or their broader family are able to provide.

We all know of the symptoms of ageing. Many people age well and maintain independence. Others require levels of help on certain occasions and others still require almost constant care, whether it is physical support or protection from the consequences of the onset of dementia. Few things cause me more concern for my own parents as they age than the care that they will need as they get older and the services that will be available.

Those of us who engage with the aged-care sector hear of people who perhaps migrated to Australia many years ago and who managed to master the English language, or been capable of speaking English over a period of decades, reverting in their old age to their native tongue. From that time on, many simply cannot communicate with or understand those in their presence, including the best-intentioned staff of aged-care facilities.

The thought of living in a world in which one is cut off from their surrounds, those amongst whom they live and the very people who are there to care for them—cut off by language and confusion that would leave most of us paralysed—is a terrifying one. So those organisations, such as the Multicultural Aged Care group, that are providing the cultural and linguistic support, directly or indirectly, for the elderly in need of particularly sensitive care deserve very special appreciation and our heartfelt thanks.

Within and around my electorate of Hindmarsh there are several such organisations. Several have developed services for and a clientele from the highly substantial Italian and Greek populations that live in Adelaide’s inner western and inner north western suburbs. For example, the Society of Saint Hilarion Inc. has three residential aged-care facilities in Adelaide’s western suburbs, two within my electorate of Hindmarsh, that specialise in caring for people of Italian background.

We also have St Raphael’s and St Martin’s, which prides itself on specialising in people from multicultural backgrounds. We are also fortunate to have the Ridleyton Greek Home for the Aged and St Basil’s of Croydon Park, both of which service the very large Greek population in Adelaide’s west, including the area from where I come from, which houses thousands of people of Greek background for whom English is a second language. To aid these and other organisations around the Adelaide metropolitan area, we are fortunate to have Multicultural Aged Care Inc.

Multicultural Aged Care was first incorporated in 1992. Its vision statement reads:

... that all older people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds will lead the lifestyle of their choice.

The MAC, Multicultural Aged Care, community has been implementing programs in support of agencies that care for people of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds for over 15 years. But its work is not exclusively agency focused. Multicultural Aged Care has worked with all players in the development and delivery of the services that are required for aged-care residents.

Necessarily, it has also been working closely with community organisations on the development of their capacities to care for elderly people and also with governments, peak bodies and mainstream organisations concerning the needs of elderly people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Multicultural Aged Care Inc. is today holding their annual general meeting and the official opening of their new premises in Mile End, South Australia. I sent a note to be read in my absence at the event this afternoon in Adelaide.

I will state here just a little of what I wrote to be read to those celebrating their achievements and the opening of the new premises of Multicultural Aged Care Inc.:

To the CEO, Rosa Colanero, and Evelyn O’Loughlin, Chairperson of the MAC board, I do regret being prevented from attending your meeting and celebration this afternoon, as the care for our mothers, fathers and grandparents who have come to this country from afar, often many years ago, is central to the hopes of so many of my generation. For their care and your ongoing work may I say thank you— and congratulations on your achievement today.

Question agreed to.