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

I rise today and I'm very pleased to speak about a visit I made to a very special residential aged-care community in my electorate. This aged-care community is called Morlancourt, which is operated by RSL Care at Angle Park, in the federal seat of Adelaide. RSL Care South Australia is a proud not-for-profit charitable care provider that has served the ex-service and wider community of South Australia for over 100 years, celebrating its official centenary in 2015. The organisation offers a number of accommodation and support options for residential aged care, retirement living and affordable housing for all South Australians, with various locations throughout South Australia.

A few weeks ago, on 19 June, I had the honour and pleasure of visiting Morlancourt and had a tour of the premises and spoke to some of the residents and staff. They had organised a morning tea with the residents, the majority of whom were, of course, veterans and family member of veterans from World War II, in fact, and the Korean War, as well as an increasing cohort of Vietnam veterans who are now entering residential aged care, which is a challenge for the sector that the Department of Veterans' Affairs is working on, due to the need to transition a new generation of veterans into aged care in a supported manner. We know that those people that served in Vietnam, those veterans, are reaching that age now—they are in their 70s and onwards—that will require residential aged care.

The CEO of RSL Care, a former Australian Army East Timor veteran, Nathan Klinge, also praised the efforts of Minister Keogh, the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, in this regard. They've been talking about this particular issue. While at Morlancourt, I was proud to present Nathan and the residents with a flag that was flown in the House of Representatives. I was also able to announce a $7,841 grant awarded under the Saluting Their Service Commemorative Grants Program which the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Minister Keogh, had approved. That money will be used to install military memorabilia display cabinets, and they showed me the area where they would go up, for the veterans to be able to have a fantastic display area.

I'd like to thank Nathan, Wellbeing Coordinator Markella Bolimos and the RSL Care team for the tremendous work they do to support our veterans in South Australia.