Memo from Mayo September 3

Mayo's own UN Youth Representative

Mayo's own Youth Representative to the United Nations, Amos Washington, centre, with Rebekha and her Centre Alliance colleague Senator Rex Patrick at Parliament House.

Australia’s Youth Representative to the United Nations, Amos Washington of Mount Barker, was the special guest at an event in Federal Parliament organised by Rebekha through the Parliamentary Friends of Young People.

Amos, a 22-year-old law student, has spent the past six months on a self-funded tour of Australia talking to young people prior to heading to New York next month to address the United Nations General Assembly about his findings.

Co-chairs of the Parliamentary Friends of Young People - Centre Alliance Member for Mayo Rebekha Sharkie and Liberal Member for Brisbane Trevor Evans – hosted the event with Centre Alliance Senator Rex Patrick so they could bring the voluntary work conducted by Amos to the attention of their colleagues.

“I am very proud of the work done by Amos, a young person from my electorate who was also a member of my youth advisory group, Young Mayo,” Rebekha said.

You can watch a video with Amos here.

And there might be time to grab at ticket to attend a fundraiser for Amos on September 6. Details below.

Kids in the House

Robert and Charlotte King from Littlehampton (pictured) visited Rebekha in Canberra as part of JDRF Australia’s Kids in the House campaign.

They were articulate advocates for research into Type 1 juvenile diabetes, calling for the Government to secure a further $50m over five years to continue the work of JDRF’s Clinical Research Network.

Charlotte was eight years old when she was diagnosed and thanks to research breakthroughs she is fitted with a Continuous Glucose Monitoring device and hasn't had to prick her finger to check her sugar levels.

However, Charlotte’s parents visit her school every day to conduct insulin injections.

Juvenile diabetes affects not just children but the whole family.

Finding a cure is the ultimate goal but research can also lead to new technologies to make life easier for the 120,000 Australians who live with this life-long autoimmune disease.

Motivation Australia

Rebekha recently met with Kylie Mines from Motivation Australia, a not-for-profit disability, and development organisation based in Aldinga.

Motivation Australia works with local organisations in the Asia Pacific Region to enable people to be healthy and mobile, access assistive technology and achieve full and equal inclusion.

With the Government scaling back spending on aid, organisations like Motivation Australia are struggling to secure sufficient funding to run primary health care projects in the Pacific.

One of their projects is running wound management training for nurses so people with diabetes who contract feet ulcers can avoid hospitalisation and possibly amputation.

Pension waiting times blowout

Rebekha used a speaking opportunity in Parliament to talk about the excessive waiting times for processing applications for the aged pension.

In Mayo, several constituents have waited months for their applications to be approved.

This Government needs to invest in Centrelink, especially in its service delivery.

You can read Rebekha's speech here or watch the video here.

Hats off to the Top Hat Forum

John Selby, left, from the Mount Barker Croquet Club, Jan Luck from COTA, Rebekha Sharkie MP, and Mount Barker Community Centre Manager Sean Hames at the Top Hat Forum.

Rebekha was the guest speaker at the latest Top Hat Forum run by the Mount Barker Council and the Mount Barker Community Centre.

The forum meets at the council chambers whenever there is a fifth Wednesday in a month and is a networking opportunity for various community groups with older memberships in the region.

Rebekha spoke about the challenges and opportunities facing Australia’s ageing population and the electorate of Mayo.

Mayo is the oldest electorate in SA and the eighth oldest in the country with more than one in five residents (22.3%) over the age of 65 years.

The number of Australians aged 85 years and over is projected to more than double from 455,400 in 2014 to 954,600 by 2034.

The number of people living to the age of 100 and beyond is expected to increase dramatically over this period, from about 4,600 in 2014 to 15,700 in 2034, and in another 50 years on, in 2084, there is expected to be more than 100,000 centenarians!