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Speaker 1: I'm very pleased to say that. Joining me in the

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Speaker 1: studio right now from the Council of the Aging here

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Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory, the CEOH Sue share our good morning, Sue.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, Good morning listeners.

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Speaker 1: Lovely to have you in the studio as always. Soon

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Speaker 1: now I'm going to get to the very important stuff

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Speaker 1: in just a moment. Well, it's all very important actually,

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Speaker 1: but I will get to the voluntary assisted dying in

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Speaker 1: just a moment. But I know it was announced a

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Speaker 1: little bit earlier this week that will our pensioners are

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Speaker 1: set to receive a boost to their payments when the

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Speaker 1: federal government's indexation changes take effect on March twenty, so

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Speaker 1: not too far away. Singles are going to receive an

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Speaker 1: extra three nine hundred and thirteen dollars per year, while

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Speaker 1: councils are sorry, couples, i should say, going to get

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Speaker 1: an increase of five nine hundred and two each year. SOE,

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Speaker 1: what's your reaction to the increase in these payments for pensioners.

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Speaker 1: Do they go far enough? No?

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Speaker 2: Most definitely, they just don't go far enough at all,

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Speaker 2: especially if you're looking at the cost of living, and

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Speaker 2: also if you want those particular people pensioners to keep

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Speaker 2: their private health funds, and they've gone up. Everything's gone up.

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Speaker 2: But the main thing is, as we said in the

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Speaker 2: press release, really that they really do need to increase

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Speaker 2: the amount of passion that can earn. We've got a

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Speaker 2: skill shortage in the Northern churchy, so I can't well

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Speaker 2: throughout Australia we tap into the market of retired people

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Speaker 2: and especially pensioners who would like to earn a little

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Speaker 2: bit more and make it twenty thousand dollars that they

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Speaker 2: can earn before it affects their pension over all.

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Speaker 1: The people really annoys me. I just think, why if

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Speaker 1: you've got a senior who's keen to work, who is

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Speaker 1: still able to work, and has all this knowledge in

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Speaker 1: their brain that they're able to utilize within the workforce,

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Speaker 1: why not let them work a few more hours and

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Speaker 1: earn a bit more money.

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Speaker 2: Will you hit the nail on the head? I mean,

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Speaker 2: imagine the enthusiasm and energy of you coupled with the

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Speaker 2: experience and wisdom of the older generation. You've got an

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Speaker 2: unbeatable combination. It just flumaxes me actually that the government

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Speaker 2: still won't I know, Peter Dutton was against it. So

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Speaker 2: hopefully he will come around if he gets in or

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Speaker 2: whoever gets in. But it's just a necessity at the moment. Really,

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Speaker 2: they should be able to rather than be penalized like

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Speaker 2: forty eight cents in the dollar if they earn over

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Speaker 2: what they're entitled to. I mean, where's the incentives. I said,

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Speaker 2: this is skill shortage, let's just do it.

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Speaker 1: I hate the way you get punished by Centrelink or

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Speaker 1: ultimately you know, by the federal government if you want

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Speaker 1: to work harder or if you want to try and

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Speaker 1: get ahead, like it's the same situation for a lot

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Speaker 1: of UNI students. You know, if you go and get

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Speaker 1: a part time job, you're getting penalized for it. And

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Speaker 1: I understand that there needs to be rules in place.

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Speaker 1: I get all of that, but you know, the pension

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Speaker 1: for our seniors is not a lot of money as

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Speaker 1: it is when you look at the cost of life

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Speaker 1: in Australia right now.

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Speaker 2: It's not if you want the bear essentials. And then

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Speaker 2: especially if you're renting in the private rental markets, you

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Speaker 2: haven't got social housing and you're on a ten year

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Speaker 2: weight loss like you might be up here, and then

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Speaker 2: three four hundred a week really, and then that's what

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Speaker 2: six hundred and eight hundred your pensions one one hundred,

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Speaker 2: you know, you're on the poverty line straight away. And

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Speaker 2: the other thing probably on a different level as well.

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Speaker 2: For the federal election, we're all calling on a dental

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Speaker 2: scheme for many care right because people just can't afford

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Speaker 2: to go to the dentists and they're not going to

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Speaker 2: the dentists and other essential items. If you're on a

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Speaker 2: low income, you just can't afford it is really so

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Speaker 2: there's all a whole lot of issues, Katie, that the

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Speaker 2: federal government really needs to Let's simplify it. Let's let

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Speaker 2: people who are retired and on a pension earn twenty

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Speaker 2: thousand dollars and then they can they'll also go back

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Speaker 2: into the community.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 2: It's like a merry go around. It'll keep going around.

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Speaker 2: It'll help businesses, it'll help everybody else. And they might

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Speaker 2: only want to work, which is fine one or two

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Speaker 2: days a week. Yep, that's fine, casual workforce. You can't

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Speaker 2: working eight hours a day, five days a week. Those

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Speaker 2: days are gone. They have to move the parad arms

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Speaker 2: and look outside the box and do those sorts of

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Speaker 2: look at those issues.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, I think it's I actually think it's

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Speaker 1: quite common sense. I don't know why there's a push

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Speaker 1: against it or why there doesn't seem to be an

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Speaker 1: acceptance of it, particularly when you work, Like when you

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Speaker 1: look at working class Australia and you know seniors that

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Speaker 1: are working class Australians, you know, you don't all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden not need money to be able to get

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Speaker 1: by once you retire, or you don't all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: you know, not sort of still have all of those bills.

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Speaker 1: We need to make sure that you know that you

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Speaker 1: are supported because in turn, you know, then if you

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Speaker 1: can still continue to have your private health and things

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Speaker 1: like that, unless of a burden on the system.

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Speaker 2: Well exactly, it saves money in the long run. Now,

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Speaker 2: there's a lot of common sense to it, as you said,

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Speaker 2: and I agree with you. We all agree. There's thirty

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Speaker 2: five percent of Australia is over sixty five and we've

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Speaker 2: got a skill shortage. So I just to me, it

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Speaker 2: just makes sense, and to a lot of other people

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Speaker 2: and codes around Australia, it just makes sense. But sometimes

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Speaker 2: you're beating your head against a brick wall, especially with

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Speaker 2: federal government. Sometimes I just like to make things difficult.

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Speaker 1: Well why look at the amount of money we waste

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Speaker 1: on stuff as well, you know, and you just think,

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Speaker 1: come on, we can do this a bit better.

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Speaker 2: Yes, we should be. Yeah, parliamentarians, Katie, have you got it?

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Speaker 1: I don't know if I want to do that, so

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Speaker 1: I prefer to.

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Speaker 2: Yes, me too.

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Speaker 1: I like doing this exactly exactly, So tell me though,

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Speaker 1: I mean, when it comes to that pension, how much

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Speaker 1: do you reckon it should actually be?

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Speaker 2: Well, it should be at least fifty to sixty thousand,

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Speaker 2: like Canada. Yeah, and everybody it gets as I said,

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Speaker 2: it goes around in the community, it gets spent. They

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Speaker 2: all shop food, everything else. So that's what Canada has.

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Speaker 2: And the other thing I guess, like when we're looking

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Speaker 2: at age care Japan, if you volunteer in Japan, you

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Speaker 2: get credits towards your age care, so that there's a

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Speaker 2: lot that the government can look at. But I don't,

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Speaker 2: I honestly don't know why, whether they're frightened. We used

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Speaker 2: to be courageous, we used to be brave, you know,

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Speaker 2: the Lucky country and all the inventions we did in

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Speaker 2: the fifties and sixties, now we just seem so conservative

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Speaker 2: and afraid to take a risk, you know, from both

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Speaker 2: sides of government. So it just again, it just flumaxes

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Speaker 2: me that they don't look at the broader picture. And

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Speaker 2: I know sometimes what works overseas mightn't work here. But

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Speaker 2: let's take the best of the best and make it

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Speaker 2: work in Australia.

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Speaker 1: So let's move along to voluntary assisted dying. I know

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Speaker 1: that we've waited well nearly thirty years. Certainly Kota is

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Speaker 1: calling for this legislation, and you're not alone. There is

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Speaker 1: quite a number of people that have really been calling

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Speaker 1: for this for quite some time.

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Speaker 2: Where are we at, that good question, Katie, where are

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Speaker 2: we at? The Voluntary Sister Dying Expert Panel report is

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Speaker 2: just sitting there, I believe. But let's make it simple.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I've been working with Marshall Perrin and go

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Speaker 2: Gentle Australia and Judy Dench, whose husband was the first

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Speaker 2: one really to utilize the rights of the terminal. Ill

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Speaker 2: we can re enact the rights of the TERMINI Ill again,

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Speaker 2: why reinvent the wheel? We can tweak that a little bit.

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Speaker 2: I know the Legislative Assembly is very very busy writing

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Speaker 2: a whole lot of criminal law and redoing bails and

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Speaker 2: all sorts of things. But let's re enact the rights

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Speaker 2: of the terminally ill and just get going. Because really,

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Speaker 2: if you want to access voluntary sisters dyeing the CHURCHI,

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Speaker 2: as it says here, you have to go into state,

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Speaker 2: way from your family and friends and you won't be

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Speaker 2: able to say goodbye to them in your final moments,

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Speaker 2: which I think is inhumane and cruel.

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Speaker 1: So do you know if there are territorians that are

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Speaker 1: or have done that.

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Speaker 2: Not at the moment. No, I've known a few who've gone.

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Speaker 2: I get these stories every week. A few, unfortunately, have

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Speaker 2: gone to drastic measures, like one starving herself, another one

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Speaker 2: committing suicide because they couldn't access it. So yeah, no,

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Speaker 2: it's the horrible stories, and they make you just wondering

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Speaker 2: if all our parliamentaries, if people could tell them their

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Speaker 2: stories as well, they might be convinced. I mean, this

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Speaker 2: is really not You might want to use it yourself,

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Speaker 2: and that's fine, but you know, I keep saying, don't

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Speaker 2: deny me my choice. There's a choice here. You're not

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Speaker 2: going to force, obviously anybody to use it, but it's

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Speaker 2: a if you're in intolerable pain and suffering, and you

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Speaker 2: would like to end your days with dignity and also

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Speaker 2: be awake enough to say goodbye to your family, have

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Speaker 2: that final hug, say that final goodbye, and enter this

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Speaker 2: world very gently and softly. Well that's what vada is.

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Speaker 1: So I know, well, I understand you have written to

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory elected members about bringing the Northern Territory in

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Speaker 1: line with other states? What did that let us say?

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Speaker 1: And have you had any response?

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Speaker 2: I haven't had any responses yet. It's gone to all

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Speaker 2: sitting members of Parliament, Church to the Chief Minister and

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Speaker 2: copied to all sitting members and Independence in the Northern Tertary.

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Speaker 2: So I haven't had actually an answer as yet and

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Speaker 2: I would hope maybe this week we get an answer.

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Speaker 2: But I think there's an emotion being put up next

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Speaker 2: week in the Parliament which hopefully one of the members

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Speaker 2: will support.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought it was it Justine day Us or

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Speaker 1: Kat McNamara who was going.

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Speaker 2: Was going to talk with her as well. So this

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Speaker 2: is why we've done this as well. I mean, this

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Speaker 2: has been besides thirty years in the waiting, we've been

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Speaker 2: lobbying for over five for five years we had the

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Speaker 2: parliamentary petition online and another petition online and then it

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Speaker 2: got it got passed in the federal government which allowed

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Speaker 2: us to make more and that was that was a

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Speaker 2: struggle and a battle in the first place. As we

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Speaker 2: said to all the Federal parliamentary this is not about

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Speaker 2: you deciding VD. This is just about giving us the

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Speaker 2: right to discuss it. So don't get you know, your

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Speaker 2: feathers in or not. Just that's all you have to do.

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Speaker 2: I don't care what you think about V A, D

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Speaker 2: and neither the right to decide for themselves. And the

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Speaker 2: same as this, let's put all your particular opinions decided.

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Speaker 2: What do your constituents want, Yes, that's the main thing,

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Speaker 2: what do they want? And I know there's quite a

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Speaker 2: few people with as we were on the expert panel,

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Speaker 2: with religious beliefs and that that's fine. Obviously you won't

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Speaker 2: be using it, yep, but don't stop other people from

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Speaker 2: saying goodbye with dignity and respect to their loved ones.

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Speaker 1: Well, sou Shira, I always appreciate your time in the studio.

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Speaker 1: It's lovely to talk to you this morning. The CEO

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Speaker 1: of the Council of the Aging here in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: Thank you again for.

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Speaker 2: Joining us Pleasure, Thanks for your time. Thank you