Elder Abuse

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (14:35): I seek leave to make a brief explanation prior to addressing a question to the Attorney-General regarding the rise of elder abuse.

Leave granted.

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI: A Sunday Mail report from 28 September noted that the reporting of elder abuse has increased 400 per cent in South Australia over the past five years. It is presumed in the sector and by experts that the true figure of abuse is actually much higher than reported. The article states, and I quote:

Most common are reports of verbal, physical, emotional and financial abuse, including, increasingly instances of coercive control. There are also reported cases of neglect and theft, in which an older person’s property is sold or savings emptied.

My questions to the Attorney-General are:

1. Has the Attorney-General been briefed by Minister Nat Cook, the minister responsible for South Australia's seniors and ageing well, about the shocking increase in reported elder abuse?

2. Has the Attorney and his government any plans to improve the legislation around elder abuse, in particular increasing penalty deterrents and consequences?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:37): I thank the honourable member for her question. I certainly have regular discussions with my colleague, the member who is responsible in this area for older people, the Hon. Nat Cook, in relation to a number of things, including elder abuse, but also, importantly, recently the issue of restrictive practices, particularly when people have lost capacity and they are in different forms of accommodation.

As the honourable member indicates, elder abuse is a significant, difficult and rising area, in some cases, to tackle. There are significant laws in place already in relation to theft and abuse. One area that the honourable member mentioned was coercive control. Of course, we have had a large discussion on coercive control. It was work that started under my predecessor, the former Attorney-General, the Hon. Vickie Chapman, and was continued with the heavy involvement of the Hon. Katrine Hildyard in another place. We have legislation before the parliament in relation to coercive control as it applies to domestic partners.

Certainly, the issue has been raised in relation to coercive control and how far and wide it should apply beside just domestic partners. It is something we did consider very carefully when drafting that coercive control legislation and took into account a lot of feedback from people who work in the sector of domestic, family and sexual violence. The coercive control bill we have, quite deliberately after that feedback, is in relation to current or former domestic partners, rather than what might apply much more extensively to other family members, older people, children, etc. It doesn't mean it is not important, but we wanted to make sure we were targeting coercive control where we see the horrific outcomes of women losing their life very often.

Because we are tackling coercive control for domestic partners, as other jurisdictions and other places around the world have done, it doesn't mean we are closed off to other ideas that might increase the safety for older people, and we are always open to looking at ways we can do that.