Our community looks forward to working with your government to make South Australia better and fairer for people of every age, address, gender, cultural background and circumstance.
Dear Mr Malinauskas
COTA SA welcomes you as the 47th Premier of South Australia.
Our community looks forward to working with your government to make South Australia better and fairer for people of every age, address, gender, cultural background and circumstance.
We greatly valued hearing your vision for our State at our Leaders Forum on 1 March.
Older South Australians make up an increasing number and proportion of the people of our state and play pivotal roles as workers, grandparents, volunteers, business people, neighbours, activists, shoppers, environmental custodians and citizens. Our COTA SA values align closely with those articulated in your campaign. We must be a society where older citizens can lead active and fulfilling lives, based on principles of equity, justice and diversity.
COTA SA engages often and widely with older people all over our state. They tell us that three things are utterly important –
- We get rid of the ageism that prematurely sidelines people’s contributions and expectations, that compromises health decision-making, that thwarts ambitions to contribute and serve, that diminishes rights and freedoms as we age and that wrongly assumes an interest in the past and not the future;
- We plan for the 26% of older South Australians who live outside metropolitan Adelaide so that they can be vital contributors and participants in vital communities, in regions that are equipped and contemporary in terms of vision, workforce, infrastructure, housing and services;
- We remove the cloak of invisibility on older women who pay a high price for the heavy lifting they do as unpaid carers, low paid workers and the bedrock of families. This means secure housing, access to training and jobs, recognition of contribution as well as opportunities to continue as citizens of a community where they are valued.
We very much look forward to working with your government. We would love to discuss our ideas for the part we, and older South Australians, can and will play in the future of our great State.
In the interim we offer our warmest congratulations and welcome.