Expert calls for legal reform on elder abuse
Australia’s criminal laws must be reviewed in light of the low rate of prosecutions for elder abuse, according to a leading expert who has also called for the various power of attorney and guardianship laws at state level to be re-examined. Professor Wendy Lacey, Dean of Law at the University of South Australia told the Australian Association of Gerontology national conference on Wednesday that along with legislative reform, coroners needed to be educated about elder abuse and its prevalence. While there were mandatory reporting obligations around suspected physical and sexual abuse under the Aged Care Act, these only covered seniors living in residential aged care, and did not protect the majority of older people who were not accessing federally-funded services, she said.Professor Lacey, who is a co-convenor of the Australian Research Network on Law and Ageing, was last year appointed to the SA Minister for Health’s Steering Committee which reviewed the state’s framework for responding to elder abuse. She said that under the constitution, the Federal Parliament’s powers to address elder abuse were “virtually nil” with “almost no capacity to develop a comprehensive systemic framework.” Therefore, advocates needed to look the states, said Professor Lacey. “We can seek the support of the Commonwealth around funding and doing a national review around the prevalence and types of elder abuse, but from a legal and constitutional perspective we have to look to our state governments for the answer,” she told the Adelaide audience.