Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / COTA NT's Sue Shearer says more than 15,000 seniors have been given $500 in recognition of the contribution they make to the community

Transcript

COTA NT's Sue Shearer says more than 15,000 seniors have been given $500 in recognition of the contribution they make to the community · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Senior Territorians are benefiting from the Senior's recognition scheme. It
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: is the distribution of this year's pre paid bank cards
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: are almost complete as I understand it.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Joining me on the line to tell me more.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Sue Shearer, She is the CEO of the counsel of
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the agent.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, soe.
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: Good morning, Katie. Love you hear your adulphsive tones again.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Lovely to hear yours too, Sue. How are those How
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: are those cards going?
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: Most people would have got them by now. I think
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: overall fifteen thousand, one cent out it could have been
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: sixteen thousand and excuse me, that's over eight million dollars
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: that'll be returned to the local economy. So besides Senior
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: is benefiting, obviously, businesses also benefit, which is wonderful.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: It is a good thing. So which like, where can
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: people spend that money? Where can senior spend that money?
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: Well it's changed quite a bit. Last year you could
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: only really before Dune. Last year you could really only
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: do petrol and accommodation and travel and a few other things.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: But now you can spend it on everything except alcohol,
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: gambling products and what we call naughty products.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah right, so everything else.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what, if you were spending it on
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: your petrol, you wouldn't get very far.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: So oh, I know, it's just it's really criminal actually
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: what they're doing to territorian I feel for people with
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: the cost of living. And while that five hundred dollars
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: might help on a debit carden for a couple they
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: get a thousand, it won't go far with the cost
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: they want to buy groceries, or if they also want
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: to put fuel on it, it really just doesn't go far.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: All.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a tough thing at the moment.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: You know, it's a wonderful thing that our seniors get
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: this five hundred dollars on those cards, but so is
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: it quite hard at the moment for a lot of
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: our seniors when it comes to cost of.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: Oh it's very hard if you're on a set income,
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: even for self funded retirees on a set income, but
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: especially mention it and those people as well, I mean,
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: they finding it difficult to even feed their pets. They'd
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: rather feed their pets than feed themselves, and that's a
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: really sad situation and a lot of them, as we know,
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: also put solar in with the promise of a particular rebate,
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: and now that's been taken away from them. So there's
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: a whole raft of issues that are affecting seniors and
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: making it very difficult for them to survive.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's tough going and I know that you and
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: I have spoken about that before. It's tough going for
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: a lot of people at the moment with the cost
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: of living. So just to go back to those cards
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: for a minute, though, is there somewhere con territories for
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: any of those sceniors that are listening this morning that
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: do want a bit further detail? Is there is the
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: CODA website the best place to go? Well, where can
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: they get a bit further detail if they need it?
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: Oh, they can come, they can come to us. But
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: the best website is the Anti Concessions website because it
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: is a tertiary government initiative. But we, as I said,
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: we lobbied long and half because we said it wasn't
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: an income management scheme. It's actually a reward, a recognition
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: for seniors who live up here. So they can go
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: to the anti concession scheme, but you have to be
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: obviously sixty five and over. But it doesn't matter what
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: your economic status is, you can still get that sixty
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: five and over that five hundred dollars a year, which
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: I said, which is a big help for not only seniors,
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: but also as I said, over eight million dollars will
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: we returned to the local economy. So that's really good
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: as well.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is good.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Well, so it's always lovely to speak to you. Thank
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: you very much for having a quick chat with us
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: this morning.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: Not a problem, kay.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Do you take care of you too. Thank you