For close to 75 years, COTA Victoria and Seniors Rights Victoria have worked alongside older people to shape policies, services, and systems that support safety, dignity, inclusion, and quality of life.
In 2024–25, their advocacy helped drive meaningful change across elder abuse prevention, cost-of-living pressures, housing security, and community inclusion.
This summary highlights what changed, why it matters, and how older people’s voices helped make it happen.
Stronger protection from elder abuse
What’s changed? Through sustained advocacy, evidence-sharing, and sector leadership, elder abuse is now more clearly recognised and addressed within Victoria’s family violence system than ever before.
Why this matters: Around 1 in 6 older Victorians experiences elder abuse each year.
Many older people were overlooked because family violence responses focused primarily on intimate partner violence, not the complex family, financial, and care relationships older people often face.
COTA's advocacy has a direct link to the following outcomes:
Elder abuse is better embedded in Until Every Victorian Is Safe, the state’s family violence action plan.
New initiatives are underway, including:
A primary prevention framework for elder abuse.
Improved identification and response within family violence services and The Orange Door
Stronger links to the Elder Abuse Learning Hub
Workforce development to support safer practice
Through the Victorian Elder Abuse Strategic Alliance, we also helped align sector advocacy, strengthening the collective voice calling for reform