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Annual Report 2004 OPSO’s new dimension has given us a statewide consultation base. While last year we sought the opinions of the people of the south-east corner on their vision for 2020, this year we covered the rest of the state at the request of the government. Our teams consulted every sector of the community, including schools from the north to the far west and to the southern border. The report has been given to Communities Minister Warren Pitt to present to Parliament. It demonstrates that, in an ageing society, older people are showing by example that they can conduct significant research statewide for the benefit of the community. Meanwhile, reporting the results of our Speakouts and other consultations in the last five years to individual Ministers on community needs and recommendations has kept us busy. These reports will be taken to individual Ministers during the next four months. Already the results of our consultations on crime have been used by Minister Judy Spence’s Seniors Task Force, with the result that Bill Benson and I, who are on the force, have been deeply involved in he production to a tight deadline of the booklet, ‘Confident, Safe and Secure Living in Queensland’. We co-opted former editor Ilma Ferguson and her speedy editing of the book was greatly appreciated by all concerned. OPSO will be involved in the book’s distribution. During our consultations, we received a great number of proposals for intergenerational projects to assist in the development of a more cohesive society, less crime and a greater understanding between generations. These will be given to the appropriate Ministers. We invited representatives from each town to seek public opinion at the grass roots level and to feed it back into our Forum for action. The Media Awards in November last year were a great success, especially with the appearance of award winner Andrew Denton. Much of the happy atmosphere was due to invitations allowing guests to bring their partners, and the inclusion of young people as part of our intergenerational policy. This year we have received funding from the Commonwealth and as a result, we have been able to add intergenerational categories to the awards. We are also giving awards for consistent excellence. Thanks must be given to the judges of these awards, both from OPSO, and the final judges from Queensland University, Queensland University of Technology the University of Southern Queensland, as well as John Teerds and Dr Anne Ring. Thanks also to Janice Crawford for her work over the last seven years of the awards, and also to Susan Teerds without whom the awards would not have been such a success. We have continued our work with the RACQ, taking the Years Ahead program to several centres in the south-east corner. We have also continued our lectures at the Police Academy, and at the universities. An innovation for Seniors Week this year which caused much merriment, and also a few serious underlying messages, was the Mock Parliamentary Debate at Parliament House. Minister Warren Pitt, who acted as Speaker in the Debate, at the Premier’s Awards referred to the success of this event and wants us to make it a regular feature of the week. We also joined young international competition debaters in an entertaining debate and experiment for the International Day of Older Persons organised by the Gerontology Association. Our membership of a long list of advisory committees has been an important part of our work this year. While I have chaired the Ministerial Advisory Council for Older Persons, Ilma Ferguson and Maida Lilley have helped me whenever I was working elsewhere by attending Road Safety and the Transport Ministerial Committees. Ilma has also taken part in the Pedestrian Safety Committee meeting while Tracey Douglas and Maida Lilley have looked after Home and Community Care and Housing committees respectively, Beulah Castan for her representation of OPSO on COGS and Patricia Varney the Senior Sector meetings. Congratulations are in order to Tracey for the development of Council of Grandparents and Maree for setting up so many grandparents’support groups. Our Writers Club has continued to make their contributions to the newssheet and some of their work has been published this year. Bill Benson has organized the Police Academy work, and the Years Ahead organisation has been shared by him and Ilma. Thanks also to Mary Daly, Florence Nixon, Maida Lilley, Tony Townsend, Maree Lubach, Maureen McCracken. Jo Smyth and Patricia Varney for their work. I would also like recorded the contribution to OPSO of Marilyn Smith, who has taken us on our consultations and other activities for many years now. Thanks also to Jane Fair for her bookkeeping and Anne Carlsson for her always-on-call office work for OPSO. Special thanks to our senior advisor, Alan Hales, for his work throughout the year, especially his contribution during the three weeks’ consultations in the north and far west as he bravely faced the task - one man among six women – Val French, Miriam Battersby, Marilyn Smith, Maida Lilley, Betty Ritchie, Jane Fair. We must also record our thanks to St Lukes Nursing for making available these rooms to us when our accommodation of 10 years was sold. We are particularly grateful to Pixie Annat for organising this accommodation for us. – Val French |
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