Page 3611 - Week 10 - Thursday, 19 September 2019
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significant research and analysis, the abuse of older people in Australia is still largely hidden, and its nature and prevalence are not well understood.
We know it is happening. We have probably all heard about shocking individual incidents, but there need to be more accurate ways to understand, identify and measure elder abuse. We also need to help the community to recognise the signs of elder abuse and to know how to report it and seek assistance for older people affected by these shameful behaviours.
That is why all Australian governments have agreed to focus on building an understanding of elder abuse and raising community awareness as the first two priority areas in the national plan to respond to the abuse of older Australians 2019-2023. The national plan was launched on 19 March 2019 and will serve as a compass to ensure that all jurisdictions progress in the same direction, and that we coordinate our efforts and share our learnings with each other for the benefit of older Canberrans.
During the process of developing the national plan we consulted widely. The national plan reflects the input of the ACT Ministerial Advisory Council on Ageing, COTA ACT, Legal Aid ACT, the ACT Law Society, ACT Disability, Aged and Carer Advocacy Service, and the Public Trustee and Guardian.
In addition to focusing on raising awareness, the national plan reflects other key priorities to address and prevent elder abuse which were drawn from consultation with stakeholders. These are strengthening front-line responses for older people experiencing abuse, working to harmonise enduring power of attorney legislation across Australia and setting up a national register of enduring powers of attorney, and identifying gaps in legislation for safeguarding vulnerable older people.
The national plan is supported by an implementation plan, endorsed by all attorneys-general in June this year, which sets out actions to be taken under each priority. The current implementation plan captures actions up to 2022. It is a living document that will be updated to reflect emerging initiatives, and it will be monitored by a national implementation executive group which includes two ACT senior officials.
The ACT government has already commenced a number of initiatives to safeguard the rights of older Canberrans, and we have more than 20 initiatives included in the implementation plan.
A part of our commitment to implement the national plan responding to the abuse of older Australians is to identify gaps in legislation that would safeguard the most vulnerable older people in our community. Given this commitment, I have instructed my directorate to commence work on a proposed specific criminal offence relating to elder abuse in the ACT, as I announced on 31 August. I will take this proposal to the community for their views later this year.
As part of our plan to develop Canberra into an age-friendly city, the government recognises that there is more work to be done to protect our older Canberrans from
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