Wednesday, 21 September 2022

 Mr TAK (Clarinda) (10:39): I rise to speak on the inquiry into support for older Victorians from migrant and refugee backgrounds, which was referred to the Legal and Social Issues Committee on 4 August 2021. I start by acknowledging and commending you, Deputy Speaker, on your efforts as chair at the time, and also all the committee members. The inquiry was very relevant to my constituents. Clarinda is one of the most diverse electorates in the state, with more than half of our community born overseas. We are also home to a host of amazing multicultural seniors groups, and we work together with over 60 different groups to support our seniors from culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

The Victorian government recognises and acknowledges the wonderful contributions of our older generations in ensuring that Victoria has become such a multicultural success story. I send my thanks to all of our multicultural seniors, their support groups and all of those that shared their time and experiences with the committee. The resulting committee report explores how we can better support culturally diverse older Victorians to access services, participate fully in the community and be healthy. The report acknowledges that more can be done to increase multicultural older people’s awareness of available support, build trust and provide services that meet their cultural and spiritual needs. The committee received 73 submissions and held five public hearings. With this evidence it was able to produce a report with 61 findings and 76 recommendations.

We heard of the difficulties in accessing services due to barriers relating to language, transport, housing, finances and visa status, as well as challenges around social isolation, barriers to economic and civic participation, digital exclusion, elder abuse and the cultural inclusiveness of aged care. The report aims to address these challenges to ensure that older people from migrant and refugee backgrounds can age with dignity and with respect.

To achieve this, some of the committee’s recommendations include increasing funding for ethnospecific and multicultural organisations to provide essential services; more specifically addressing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on culturally diverse older people; supporting professional development and career pathways for bicultural and bilingual workers; supporting various initiatives to increase the financial, health and digital literacy of culturally diverse older people; supporting the expansion of activities to reduce the social isolation of older people and facilitate their civic and economic participation; and encouraging mainstream aged care providers to partner with ethnospecific organisations to improve their capacity to deliver culturally inclusive services.

I also would like to again acknowledge the hard work of my fellow committee members and the support and commitment of the staff who worked on this inquiry, and I look forward to working together to deliver outcomes for our older multicultural Victorians.