Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The simple pleasure of sharing a coffee and cake with friends at a riverside cafe is not something everyone can take for granted and, indeed, for some of our most vulnerable residents it is only possible thanks to the excellent Home and Community Care program. Last week I joined a group of Freo electorate seniors on an outing to Zephyrs Cafe in East Fremantle. It was facilitated by the town of East Fremantle's Neighbourhood Link program. The special occasion was to celebrate funding for their new bus, which will be provided through the budget's expanded Home and Community Care funding. The HACC program is an essential part of the care framework that allows Fremantle seniors, some with a permanent disability, to remain living independently in their homes and to stay involved in their community.

I welcome the extra $630,000 in recurrent and one-off Home and Community Care funding for a range of providers in my electorate. This will allow Neighbourhood Link, Fremantle HACC Services, Melville CARES and five other Fremantle organisations to both continue and expand the services they provide, which include domestic help, nursing, allied health care such as physiotherapy and podiatry, home delivered meals, social support and personal care. I know these services makes a huge difference in the quality of people's lives, and of course it gives some much-needed and well-deserved assistance to the families that support their mums and dads, nanas, grandmas and granddads who continue to live independently. I congratulate Sue Limbert and the town of East Fremantle for their commitment to the Neighbourhood Link services.