Community
13 February, 2025
Aged care plight raised in Parliament
DEBATE over new legislation surrounding retirement villages has seen the plight of Terang’s aged care community raised in Parliament.
South West Coast MP Roma Britnell spoke on the issue during the first sitting week of Parliament for 2025 as the Retirement Village Amendment Bill 2024 was read for a second time.
She argued the government needed to do more to support the elderly in their transition, saying the bill was “imperfect” for both residents and providers.
Ms Britnell cited the 2023 collapse of former May Noonan Aged Care Centre provider, Lyndoch Living, as a “shocking situation” which highlighted the importance ensuring the bill was balanced and thorough.
She said the loss of May Noonan left Terang with a “desperate need for new facilities”.
“I would like to take the opportunity to raise Terang’s plight and the needs of the government to work with the Terang community to solve this issue,” Ms Britnell said.
“A first step, the community actually want the government to provide more aged-care residential beds at the Terang hospital, for obvious reasons.
“But there is also an overwhelming need for greater aged-care support and a strong desire to bring a retirement village to Terang.”
Ms Britnell cited the two-stage approach proposed by the Terang Aged Care Future steering committee to solving the town’s aged care woes – which involves a short-term development of a 60-70 unit retirement village in Terang, and a long-term vision of building a new residential aged care facility.
“For the village, though, to come to fruition, the Terang community need land allocated, they need funds raised and they need to attract a suitable developer and operator,” Ms Britnell said.
“But I really commend the community for getting together and doing this. They did it when they set up May Noonan, so they know they can solve their own problems, they just need assistance.
“Ideally a retirement village would be located within the town boundaries so that residents can access local services and businesses.
“It is really important to stay in your local community of interest and continue to live the life you have loved.”
Ms Britnell urged the Labor Government to work with the Terang Aged Care Future steering committee to “create positive solutions to fix the need for more aged-care services in Terang”.
“We should congratulate committee members like Chris O’Connor, Eve Black, Ken McSween and others, as well as Cr Geraldine Conheady, a former deputy mayor of Corangamite, who understands Terang well and is a terrific advocate.
“These are people who are proactively working on solutions to fill a community need and to attract investment to Terang.”
Ms Britnell added she had previously raised the lack of available aged care in Parliament, and was “shocked” to receive a response which suggested elderly residents should relocate to Cobden or Warrnambool.
“I reckon it is pretty ordinary that the government made the suggestion,” she said,
“There is negligible public transport, the roads are dangerous and their lives are being built in Terang, and they want to stay in Terang and live their lives in Terang.
“It is so isolating to suggest that elderly people move to another town for the last chapter of their lives when they have built friendships and relationships over their lifetime.
“They go to the Lions Club and the CWA, and I have enjoyed many evenings at the Rotary Club in Terang.
“It just shows that the Labor government is out of touch with how Victorians live, and this bill provides the opportunity to get it right.”
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