From the President
Winding up for the year, Grey Power Wellington Central is proud of its advocacy on behalf of members and the extended older community in our region.
The Association was joined by some transferring members when the Mana/Tawa Association wound up. We welcome those members’ continued support of Grey Power.
While we would like to see more members and guests attend our activities, those who join us enjoy the discussion, always learn something, and often leave with some left-over afternoon tea. Our recent public meeting with Green MPs Tamatha Paul and Lawrence Xu-Nan was informative and we had time for all questions to be answered.
The Association is active within Zone 4, which meets four times a year in Palmerston North. At the Zone meeting on Thursday, 5 December we discussed the proposed $10 magazine fee to cover postage. The current capitation fee of $7.50 does not cover the cost of mailing out the magazine, let alone the operational costs. Some members have elected to receive only a digital copy of the magazine, which has reduced the overall postage cost minimally.
As the Zone 4 representative on the Grey Power Board work continues apace developing a new strategic plan. The recent Grey Power Magazine reported on recent advocacy work. It also has the third part in a series of articles on Aged Care from Committee member Alastair Duncan.
Recently you will have received a request to reply to a survey regarding advocacy and a proposed new logo. I trust members have participated by completing the survey. We should have progressive change to celebrate at the Grey Power Federation AGM, 17-19 June 2025, at the Brentwood Hotel, Wellington. The Wellington Central Association has two delegates, and any Association member can attend as an observer.
Your Committee wish members and their families a joyous festive season and very best wishes for 2025.
Colleen Singleton, Wellington Central Grey Power President
A podcast about us all
There’s no escape: if you are to live a long life, even a healthy long life, there will be challenges. Nothing prepares you for the relentless advance of changes in your mind, body and spirit. Nobody warns you about the continuous need to make small adjustments, to invent solutions for endless problems great and small. What’s more, nobody gives you credit for the creativity you show in managing your daily life. And in extreme old age, older mentors are of course extremely rare. I have found one in the amazing Doris Carnevali, who blogged about daily life in her nineties. She understands! She provides pragmatic, doable tricks and tools.
In recent episodes on my podcast, I’m reading excerpts from my book-of-the-blog, The Sturdy Centenarian. One is about losing autonomy, and the other give you a taste of her approach to very old age.
Rachel McAlpine’s podcast is Learning How To Be Old. Listen if you might be old one day!
Greens go silver
For a long time the Greens have concentrated on the young vote, but times may be a changin’. With their annus horribilis (in the words of our late beloved sovereign) behind them, life in Opposition, and the prospect of dealing with their own parents’ troubles, the Greens are at last taking us seriously. At least, that’s the conclusion of what was said at a public meeting between Grey Power and Tamatha Paul, our local Green MP, and Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan, their senior issues spokesperson. Tamatha’s mother works in elder care, so is very aware of one of the big issues for us, and Lawrence has grandparents that are needing a new rental. The issues they see are elder care, loneliness, public housing, the future of the Super Fund. Lawrence paid tribute to Tracey Martin, the NZ First MP who was the Minister for Seniors in the last government, who has helped him a lot.
The other hot issue is the review of the Retirement Villages Act, and Tamatha has already asked for information from Ministers on our behalf, and the Greens are meeting with to Retirement Villages Residents Association. Lawrence referred to rumours that home care (support for seniors to enable them to stay at home) may be cut by the coalition government.
The meeting was worthwhile, with plenty of questions (and assertions!) from the floor, and afterwards Lawrence stayed round to chat with the audience.
Owen Watson
Incorporation update
Changes to the law regulating an incorporated society require Grey Power, along with thousands of other organisations, to update their rules (constitutions). With 70 separate Associations members of the Grey Power Federation, the Board has shared a template that will form the basis of the Wellington, and others updates. They will, in due course, be ratified by members at the next AGM, and the Federation, and registered with the Registrar of Incorporated Societies.
Live and let die?
On a flight back from Europe last month, knowing that the movie selection would not hold my attention for 30 or so hours, I paid more money than I intended and brought a copy of the Economist magazine from the airport bookshop.
The cover showed Elon Musk and the bulk of the articles were about the three “T’s. Trump, trade and tariffs. But what caught my eye were two pieces on the then pending vote in the UK parliament on its ‘end of life choice’ legislation and what ‘for and against’ camps were saying.
Having sat alongside my mother last year here in Wellington as she made three, all unsuccessful, applications to end her life (question 1 Are you over the age of 18….?) and knowing that next year will be the first comprehensive review of our legislation, I was intrigued to see that the UK, like NZ, setting the bar so that to qualify an applicant needed a diagnosis of pending death within 6 months of application.
Our law exists because a private member’s bill, introduced by then Labour MP Maryan Street, and later in the name of ACT leader David Seymour, made it through on a conscience vote. Now, five years after its passing, our End of Life Choice Act 2019 is up for review and a key issue for those supporting the principle is changing the 6-month barrier.
In 2019 in NZ, and now in the UK, concerns have focused on the potential abuse of end of life with family pressures as a key risk. Concerns have also been raised within the disability community; after all, it was in my mother’s lifetime that the Nazi’s used euthanasia, years before they came for the Jehovah Witness, the Jews and the Communists. The Economist refutes the family pressure concern and in this country the disability community has a range of views.
For Grey Power members, this is an issue that we may want to form a view on so that when it comes to their conscience, MPs have some idea of what our constituency is thinking.
Our MPs have another matter to consider in the new year. The Health Select Committee inquiry into aged care should report. The review of the current funding model and a review of the Retirement Villages Act are scheduled for 2025. MPs won’t be getting a conscience vote on any of those issues and the track record of the two main parties has been to mouth platitudes and good intentions. While the State underwrites the care of the aged to the tune of $1.4 billion in 2022-23 (Listener 19 October), neither Labour nor National have shown any appetite for a serious critique of the way care is delivered with an increasingly dominant market position by the corporate ‘for profit’ care providers. User pays – if you have the money is now the real determiner of quality residential care. Concurrently, we continue to rely on an underpaid, predominantly female and increasingly migrant workforce to deliver that care in both rest homes and in our own homes.
So, whether your ambition is to live long and proper or find a way out on your terms, Grey Power members will have considerable opportunity in the new year to shape two debates that touch so many of us.
Alastair Duncan worked for 45 years in the care sector in NZ, the UK and USA.
New scam in town
For those (still) with a landline, watch out of the latest bitcoin scam which involves a message claiming your credit card has been used to purchase bitcoin and asking you to verify/cancel the payment.
User Pays to keep a printed copy
At the November Greypower meeting it was moved L Findlay seconded D Marshall “That Grey Power Federation charge an annual $10 delivery fee for the Grey Power Magazine, to come into force from the second issue in 2025. CARRIED K Gardener Against
The key argument for this ‘user pays’ is the cost of postage and printing which takes a large chunk out of the capitation fee of $7.50 per member to the Federation. Yet to be resolved is just how the collection of the $10 will be managed and whether that is done at a local or Federation level (watch this space).
Wellington Greypower finances
November saw us move into the red, the tune of $32.61 – but fear not. Having lashed out and spent $240 to subsidise members Christmas lunch the balance sheet is stronger than that of the coalition government with total accumulated funds of more than $24,000. It’s a significant sum given our comparatively small members (c250) and in the new year your committee will be turning its mind to how we might use some of that balance to advance the interest of our members.
Grey Power Wellington in 2025
Once a month your Wellington Grey Power committee gets together to deal with the issues of the day, be they the political machinations of our relationship with the Federation, or the day-to-day details of wondering what we can do to lift our profile in the city. We’re always keen to hear members’ ideas on how Grey Power might better engage and whether the Association should, or should not take a stand on the likes of airport sales, golden miles or ferry boats. So, if you’ve got an idea, a grump or just want to share, please email us at greypowerwellington@gmail.com
The race is on?
The Green Party has opened nominations for local body candidates and given their profile in Wellington other parties may be looking at their strategies. As reported in the Federation magazine Wellington Grey Power President Colleen Singleton has been adept at holding central government to account across the major parties, but this year and last we have struggled to connect with the City Council leadership at large and the Mayor in particular. Time will tell if the incumbents work out that Grey Power members turn out and vote!
