As an advocacy organisation COTA Victoria welcomes the opportunity to comment on Victoria’s Draft 30 Year Infrastructure Strategy. Preparation for population change needs more emphasis on the ageing of the population and the changes required across all areas of infrastructure, transport and housing to meet the World Health Organisations’ benchmarks for healthy ageing.
We recommend the Age Friendly Communities Framework to guide creating inclusive and shared urban spaces. Age-friendly cities and communities create enabling environments for active ageing and ageing in place. Planning also needs to be responsive to local needs particularly in rural and regional communities. COTA also believes the concept of productivity needs to include volunteering and caring in our communities.
We commend the vision, objectives and community engagement process Infrastructure Victoria has demonstrated. We also look forward to further opportunities to comment on the ongoing development and vision for Victoria. Our comments in this submission relate to a number of proposed options outlined in the draft 30 year strategy.