Wednesday, 31 August 2022

Legal and Social Issues Committee

Inquiry into Support for Older Victorians from Migrant and Refugee Backgrounds

Ms SULEYMAN (St Albans) (10:10): I rise today to speak in relation to the inquiry into support for older Victorians from migrant and refugee backgrounds. As the former chair of the Legal and Social Issues Committee, I am very pleased to speak on the inquiry. As many would know, the report was tabled on 3 August this year. This is a very comprehensive report exploring how state and local government, service providers and community organisations can better support culturally diverse older Victorians to access services, live healthy and active lives and also age with dignity and respect, together with making sure that those support services are available regardless of the postcode that you live in.

The committee heard during the inquiry that culturally diverse older people often face barriers to accessing services—barriers such as language, transport, digital exclusion, visa status, and the list goes on. Some multicultural older people are unaware of available supports, and it was a theme throughout the inquiry that many older multicultural people were just not aware of what services were available and who was providing the services, and they struggled actually navigating through the process. We also heard about the cultural stigma from some older people associated with accessing and reaching out for care and how service providers often do not meet their cultural and spiritual needs. As we know, Victoria is a very diverse multifaith and multicultural community, and that in itself can also present, as we can see, older Victorians with more and more barriers to accessing health and social services through the sector. We looked closely at issues such as social isolation, economic and civil participation, digital literacy, elder abuse and aged care.

As a daughter of migrants and a passionate advocate for multiculturalism in Victoria, I hope that these recommendations are all implemented, because I believe this will address the challenges and be a step towards helping older people to thrive as they age. We know that an extreme challenge for older Victorians is making sure that they have adequate supports and, most importantly, that there is support and funding for ethnospecific and multicultural organisations to provide those essential services. These are the organisations that are trusted by people and, importantly, help culturally diverse older people to find and access services close to where they live through care finders or community connectors, consulting with culturally diverse older people to design and improve services and policies that directly affect them. Also a recommendation was for greater support for bicultural and bilingual workers through a bicultural worker strategy. This was an important note, that most often older Victorians felt much more comfortable with care and support in their language—whether it is from their culture or whether it is from their same ethnicity, this really is important.

I could go on and on about the recommendations. This is a very important report. I want to thank the 73 submitters. We held five public hearings—in Coburg, Geelong and Ballarat and online. I also want to thank my colleagues the member for Geelong, the member for Buninyong, the member for Clarinda and the member for Forest Hill, and in particular the secretariat, Yuki Simmonds, Marianna, Katherine and all the team, for their hard work throughout these challenging two years. We have been able to deliver some pretty significant reports to table in this place. I strongly believe that these recommendations will enhance the wellbeing of our culturally diverse older Victorians and lead to better care outcomes, and I hope that we have the recommendations speedily supported by the government. I commend the report to the house.