Victoria, vote with your feet!
COTA’s new Age of Change campaign is encouraging political parties and voters to make the eradication of age discrimination priority number one.
Victorians are being warned that now is not the time to be complacent on the issue of age discrimination, with the state election less than a month away and the power of change still in the hands of voters.
In the lead up to the November election, Council on the Ageing Victoria (COTA) has launched its Age of Change campaign to highlight the issues currently facing older adults and to motivate Victorians to “vote with their feet”.
Age of Change calls upon on all political candidates to commit to a set of common priorities which COTA believes will lead to an age-friendly Victoria.
Executive director of COTA, Sue Hendy, has asked for government action to guarantee affordable services and low-income housing for older people, as well as an end to age discrimination.
“Despite the major parties being in full election mode, we’ve seen very little on the key issues of accessible housing for low income pensioners, rocketing energy prices and age discrimination,” said Ms Hendy.
“This campaign has a number of pillars. One of those is about action on discrimination in government and on government. Older people are not necessarily seen by the community and politicians as valuable and important people with equal rights.
“We aren’t sure that the lens that is being used in government is sensitive to the issues of age discrimination, so sometimes we have programs that don’t really support the rights of older people. We need a public declaration that age discrimination is a problem.”
Earlier this year the Brumby government released its Ageing in Victoria: A plan for an age-friendly society 2010-2020, to ensure that the state provides a good quality of life for all older people, now and in the future.
Although Ms Hendy commended the plan, she believes that the government did not go far enough.
“Well there’s no financial commitment to it at this point. It’s a good start but there needs to be a commitment to an aged-friendly community by all political parties.
“It took us a long time to get women’s rights upheld. If you think about the change in the age structure of our community, we have never lived so long.
“Our own attitudes to ageing are changing too. I guess the thing was that years ago, society didn’t need to have an attitude to ageing because people did not live that long. In a sense, these attitudes are a consequence of longevity. That’s the thing- we haven’t had community discussions about the stereotypes that exist.
“We’re presently calling for all of the parties to send us their promises so we can do an audit and comment on their policies.”
COTA will be campaigning in electorates with a higher percentage of people over the age of 60, including northern metropolitan and southern metropolitan areas, as well as eastern Victoria and inner city marginal seats.
The Victorian state election has been set for Saturday 27 November.
“I encourage people to be agents of change,” Ms Hendy said. “Ring your local pollies and ask them what they are doing about seniors issues. Don’t be complacent.
“To the politicians, more than 50 per cent of the voting public are over 50 years so don’t be complacent about ageing. To older people and everyone- we should be interested in our own ageing, as well as the ageing of others. This is about all of our ageing so vote with your feet.”