ELDER ABUSE —
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITIES' STRATEGY —SELECT COMMITTEE
RECOMMENDATIONS
184. Hon TJORN SIBMA to the Leader of the House representing
the Minister for Seniors and Ageing:
I refer to the government's
response to the final report of the Select Committee into Elder Abuse, '''I
never thought it would happen to me': When trust is broken'' and
the development of an elder abuse strategy by the Department of Communities.
(1) Is the
Department of Communities' elder abuse strategy likely to incorporate
only the 13 select committee recommendations that the government accepted?
(2) What specific
actions to seek alternative methods and/or the additional funding required to
implement the 16 select committee recommendations to which the government gave
its in-principle support have been undertaken?
(3) What specific
further consideration has been given to the five select committee recommendations
that the government said would require additional analysis before it could
indicate its support or otherwise, and what is the outcome of that analysis?
Hon SUE ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
(1) The elder abuse strategy is being developed to
include all the recommendations of the select committee's final report, along with other initiatives identified in
the national plan to respond to the abuse of older Australians and in
consultation with the sector. Further to this, Attorneys General from each
state have collaborated to develop a national plan to respond to the abuse of
older Australians—elder abuse. This national plan will be released
shortly and will complement the work underway by the Department of Communities.
(2) Details of the strategy will be
announced in due course.
(3) The
Department of Communities is liaising with the relevant agencies, including the
Department of Justice and Landgate, to determine the status of these
recommendations.