Australia’s first National Plan to Respond to the Abuse of Older Australians was released by the Commonwealth Attorney-General, Christian Porter, on Tuesday 19 March.

Developed in conjunction with state and territory government agencies, the plan provides an overview of the issues that governments need to act on as a priority, as well as early agreed actions to address them.

Launching the report, the Attorney-General said it sets out a framework for ongoing cooperation, action and monitoring against five key priority areas:

1. Enhancing our understanding
2. Improving community awareness and access to information
3. Strengthening service responses
4. Planning for future decision-making
5. Strengthening safeguards for vulnerable older adults

The Attorney-General said these priority areas will to result in:

• access to better information about elder abuse, to enable governments to target effective responses
• better co-ordination across jurisdictions, as many families live across multiple states or territories and may struggle to navigate systems and rules operating in different locations
• an improvement in people’s access to information about elder abuse, including driving greater service responses, such as the Australian Government’s recent investment in front-line support services
• greater attention on the benefits of planning ahead and making it easier and safer for older people to utilise future-planning tools such as powers of attorney.

The plan complements, but does not replace, Commonwealth and state and territory policies about ageing and elder abuse.

The plan’s release meets a key recommendation of the Australian Law Reform Commission’s 2017 report, Elder Abuse: A national legal response.

The full National Plan and a one-page overview can be viewed on the Attorney-General’s website, where you can also read about the Legal Aid Commission of Tasmania’s success in being chosen as one of only 12 organisations nationally to conduct an Elder Abuse Service Trial.