We’re pleased to advise that our Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2026 will be held as a hybrid event — both in-person and online — on 17 November 2026 between 10.30 am and 12.00 pm AEDT.
Ross House
Hayden Raysmith Room
247-251 Flinders Lane
MELBOURNE VIC 3000
Alternatively, members can attend via Zoom. Online and in-person registration is through the buttons above.
We welcome and encourage all members to attend; those attending in-person should arrive no later than 10.15 am AEDT for a 10.30 am AEDT start.
Call for Nominations
Board members are elected each year for a three-year term.
Board members who retire are eligible for re-election, subject to Clause 51 of the Constitution.
Members wishing to nominate for the Board should do so in writing via a nomination form which can be obtained by calling 03 9655 2100 and speaking to the CEO & Secretary.
To be eligible for nomination, you must be a member as of 7 September 2026.
Closing Date for Nominations
The closing date for nominations will be 5.00 pm AEDT on 6 October 2026.
If the nominees exceed the number of vacancies, a postal ballot will be conducted. The AGM agenda, nomination statements for Board vacancies, and other business papers will be available for downloading at cotavic.org.au no later than 13 October 2026.
To vote in the AGM, you must be a member as of 7 September 2026.
A member may appoint another member as their proxy to vote and speak on their behalf at the AGM. The appointment of a proxy must be in writing, in the form approved by the Board, and signed by the member making the appointment.
The member appointing the proxy may give specific directions as to how the proxy is to vote on their behalf, otherwise the proxy may vote on behalf of the Member in any matter as they see fit.
No member can be appointed as a proxy of more than 5 members. This restriction does not apply to the Chairperson of the AGM.
The proxy form can be downloaded above (when available); you can also call 03 9655 2100 to request a copy is sent to you via postal mail.
Completed proxy forms can be sent to membership@cotavic.org.au or via mail as follows:
Ben Rogers, CEO & Secretary
COTA Victoria & Seniors Rights Victoria
Level 1, 420 St Kilda Road
MELBOURNE VIC 3004
A form appointing a proxy sent by post or electronically must be received no later than 24 hours before the commencement of the AGM (10.30 am AEDT on 16 November 2026).
For us to arrange catering for in-person attendees, we ask members to register their attendance at the Annual General Meeting by booking online at cotavic.org.au, or by calling 03 9655 2100.
All members are welcome and are encouraged to attend and participate.
Sincerely,
Ben Rogers
CEO & Secretary, COTA Victoria & Seniors Rights Victoria
Last year, Victoria’s community legal service — including Seniors Rights Victoria — helped more than 75,000 Victorians with over 170,000 legal problems. However, years of underinvestment mean two Victorians are turned away for every person we’re able to help.
Seniors Rights Victoria is one of 50 community legal centres across Victoria, and the only one dedicated to preventing and responding to elder abuse. We provide legal advice, advocacy, and support – and work to help older Victorians to protect their rights, safety, housing, financial security, and independence.
Victoria’s community legal centres have collectively launched the sector’s 2026 election campaign, “Community Legal – We’ve Got Your Back”, with a call to all political parties to invest an additional $120 million over the next term of parliament to help give more Victorians the help they need, along with secure five-year funding for existing programs.
In the previous financial year, Seniors Rights Victoria received 14,488 calls to its helpline and was about to respond to 3,603 callers with a total of 2,526 discreet issues. Our advocates engaged in advice appointments with 375 clients, and opened 128 new cases. Through our work, we were able to recover $3,791,745 in money, property, and personal belongings for our clients.
We’re asking Victorians to back us and the larger campaign by writing a letter of support to their local MP online. You can do so by clicking the button above.
Showing your support will only take a few minutes and can have a big impact on helping MPs and candidates understand that investing in community-based legal assistance is one of the most powerful and cost-effective ways to make our community safer and our legal system work better for all of us.
Wherever you live, learn, or work – community legal centres like Seniors Rights Victoria have got your back.
If you’d like to show further support for the work that Seniors Rights Victoria and COTA Victoria do, we encourage you to join us through our free individual membership program.
Our community is a powerful one that is continuing to grow in size and influence. Our members and supporters participate in various programs and events and are provided with opportunities to improve their lifestyle and wellbeing, and to increase their participation in the community. We help raise awareness of the contributions that older Australians continue to make, as well as ensure that the voice of older Victorians is heard by all tiers of government.
We provide opportunities for members and supporters to directly contribute to the identification of issues and the development of policy, and it undertakes collaborative engagement and research to seek their views to bring about real change. When you become a COTA Victoria member you will receive a range of benefits to thank you for your support for the important work we do.
]]>COTA Victoria and Seniors Rights Victoria support reform to provide greater protection for communications made through closely integrated legal assistance services. Specifically, we support the establishment of a new category of legal privilege covering communications between clients, lawyers, and social service professionals in closely integrated legal assistance settings.
Our position in summary is that the law governing legal privilege should enable access to justice and should not have the effects of preventing a person from receiving the support they need to obtain, understand, and act on legal advice.
]]>Continuing participation in the paid workforce is an increasing challenge for many Victorians over 50 whom we seek to support and represent. Helping older Victorians retain or regain employment, and ensuring they are treated fairly and respectfully throughout the process, has long been a priority for our organisation. This support is becoming even more important as more people work for longer or seek to re-enter paid employment later in life.
In making this submission, we draw on many years of listening to older Victorians, providing advice and referrals to people seeking our assistance, and delivering several targeted employment support programs funded by the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments (see Section 4).
We see the current reform of employment services as an important opportunity to create a more streamlined, flexible system of support that delivers a positive and empowering experience for older workers. We are broadly supportive of the proposed streaming approach and related initiatives designed to better respond to individual needs.
We are keen to see responsiveness to ageing embedded across all elements of the program, while ensuring that age itself is not used as the basis for decision-making or determining access to different forms of support. An intersectional approach, particularly one that recognises the interaction between ageing, gender, and disability, is essential.
]]>For over 75 years, Council on the Ageing (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.
Our advocacy is grounded in the experiences of older Victorians. During the 2025–26 financial year, we heard from more than 1,500 older people through a variety of engagements. Across seven statewide surveys, targeted consultations, community conversations, and engagement with sector partners, we built an evidence base that translated lived experience into policy positions, submissions, research, and recommendations.
Older Victorians are not a single group with shared experiences, and our work sought to ensure that policies and systems recognise this diversity. This approach underpins the work undertaken by the Policy & Advocacy team, across policy areas outlined in this briefing.
Ageing intersects with every area of public policy. Older people’s experiences of housing, health, disability, employment, emergency management, family violence, digital access, and economic security are shaped by decisions made across government portfolios. However, policy and programs are not always developed with sufficient consideration of how older people experience these systems differently.
During 2025–26, we continued to advocate for ageing to be recognised as a whole-of-government consideration rather than an issue confined to a single portfolio. This is reflected in the diversity of our participation across sectors, as well products such as our state budget submission and election platform.
We also contributed to ageing and non-ageing-specific policy and program processes, including numerous parliamentary and departmental consultations, the Senior Victorians Advisory Council, delivery of core elements of the Ageing Well Action Plan, and local consultations.
This work was underpinned by the development and dissemination of research publications, submissions, member briefings, and community engagement that consistently reinforced the importance of recognising older people’s diversity, strengths, and contributions.
Economic security is fundamental to ageing well and is at the core of many of the issues affecting older Victorians. During 2025–26, we advocated for policies and systems that recognise the structural factors contributing to financial insecurity in later life and the ways that intersects with housing, health, energy, aged care, and protection from abuse.
Our research, “Addressing economic security gaps for older women in Victoria,” drew on 40 survey responses and 27 in-depth interviews to explore the cumulative impacts of unpaid caring, workforce discrimination, housing insecurity, family violence, and inadequate retirement savings. The research demonstrated that financial insecurity in later life reflects disadvantage accumulated over a lifetime. This evidence informed discussions with government, financial counselling services, and the family violence sector.
We also contributed to the Australian Government’s review of superannuation death benefits by bringing an elder abuse perspective to the reform process. We highlighted the ways financial abuse occurs in later life and advocated for stronger protections to prevent perpetrators from benefiting from the superannuation of older people they have abused.
Our work reinforced that economic security is not a standalone policy issue but a foundation for healthy ageing, central to older people’s independence, safety, health and quality of life.
Secure, affordable, and appropriate housing is essential to older Victorians’ independence and wellbeing. During 2025–26, we advocated for stronger protections, improved affordability, and greater transparency across housing and essential services.
Our advocacy included submissions to retirement housing reforms, the Victorian state budget, and engagement with ministers, government departments, regulators, and the housing sector. We advocated for fairer and more transparent retirement village contracts, stronger resident protections, accessible dispute resolution pathways, clearer consumer information, non-digital options for accessing services, and recognition of elder abuse risks within retirement housing settings.
We also continued to advocate for better support for older Victorians experiencing housing insecurity through our older women’s economic insecurity research and subsequent discussions.
As cost-of-living pressures continued, we made several submissions highlighting the challenges older consumers face navigating increasingly complex energy markets, including financial hardship, digital exclusion, and barriers to accessing concessions.
Our recommendations focused on more equitable embedded network pricing, clearer consumer information, improved life support protections, greater uptake of concessions and stronger human-centred support services. Many of these recommendations have since been reflected in reforms, including clearer bills and enhanced consumer support.
We also highlighted the risk that co-contribution requirements under Support at Home may lead some older people to delay or forgo essential services because they cannot afford the cost, advocating – in collaboration with the COTA National Alliance – for accessible hardship arrangements and funding settings that ensure financial circumstances do not become a barrier to care.
The team continued to advocate for health and aged care systems that are accessible, equitable, and responsive to the experiences of older people.
As aged care reforms progressed, insights from our own education and Care Finder teams, alongside engagement with the wider sector, identified emerging challenges associated with the implementation of Support at Home. Our collaborative advocacy has highlighted affordability pressures, barriers in thin markets, access to hardship assistance, and the need for accessible information to help older people navigate reform.
This work informed practical recommendations for government and led to the publication “Aged care supports in Victoria,” which supports older Victorians to better understand and navigate the aged care system.
We also contributed to legislative reform through engagement on the 2025 aged care medication bill, advocating for reforms that support safeguard, high-quality care.
Recognising that disability and ageing cannot be considered separately, we published and continued engagement efforts relating to our disability supports “Agenda for Action” and “Inclusive Use of Digital and Non-digital Communications for Older People with Disability,” alongside member briefings on digital inclusion and aged care reform for multicultural CHSP providers.
Together, these resources reinforced the importance of accessible information, inclusive service design, and recognising older people with disability as experts in their own lives.
A focus of our elder abuse advocacy was ensuring the experiences of older people were recognised within family violence reforms, including discussions about the proposed criminalisation of coercive control. Through government roundtables, submissions, and engagement with decision makers, we continued to advocate for recognition that elder abuse is a distinct form of family violence requiring tailored responses.
We emphasised that legislative reform must be accompanied by sustained investment in prevention, community education, workforce capability, early intervention, and diversion pathways.
We also contributed to the development of the 2nd National Plan to end the abuse and mistreatment of older people, advocating more measurable language and commitments, funding to underpin the delivery of actions, and a roadmap of what’s been achieved to date as well as actions that remain in progress.
This work was strengthened through publications including reference guides on intersectionality in elder abuse which highlight how age, disability, gender, culture and other characteristics intersect to shape experiences of abuse and access to support.
We also continued to coordinate the Victorian Elder Abuse Strategic Alliance, strengthening collaboration across government and community organisations to ensure older people’s experiences remain central to reform.
Older people can face disproportionate risks when emergency systems fail to consider factors such as mobility, disability, lived experience of disasters, digital inclusivity, housing insecurity, and social connection.
During 2025–26, we developed Australia’s first “Age-Inclusive Emergency Preparedness Guideline,” informed by the experiences of more than 300 older Victorians and carers.
Rather than viewing older people primarily through the lens of vulnerability, the guideline recognises their skills, knowledge, and lived experience as important contributors to community resilience. It provides practical guidance for governments, emergency management organisations, and community services to strengthen preparedness, response, and recovery while ensuring older people’s needs and contributions are recognised.
Throughout our advocacy, we have continued to challenge ageism and promote recognition of older people as active contributors to Victorian communities.
Our work on leadership and participation explored the opportunities and barriers affecting older Victorians’ involvement in formal and informal leadership roles. Through research, consultation, and sector engagement, we examined pathways into leadership and highlighted the skills and experience older people hold.
This work was supported through the publications “Older Victorians Shaping Communities” and the accompanying practical guide “Tips to Step into Leadership,” alongside an online leadership forum that shared practical strategies and lived experience.
We also continued to challenge ageism through publications including “Discrimination Against Older Workers in Victoria” and the member briefing “Understanding and Addressing Age Discrimination in Victoria,” highlighting the impacts of age discrimination on employment, volunteering and community participation.
Recognising that participation also depends on connection, we published “Understanding Loneliness and Connection,” which examines the importance of social inclusion and belonging for healthy ageing.
Together, this work reinforces that older people are not simply recipients of services and support. They are leaders, workers, volunteers, carers, advocates, and community members whose knowledge and lived experience strengthen Victorian communities and should continue to shape the policies and systems that affect them.
As Victoria’s population continues to grow older, recognising, respecting, and including older people in decision-making is essential to building communities where people of all ages can thrive.
By grounding our advocacy in lived experience, evidence, and collaboration, we can continue to bring older people’s voices into the decisions that affect them.
]]>The Council on the Ageing (COTA) Victoria and Seniors Rights Victoria (SRV) ‘State of Ageing in Victoria’ Pulse survey provides an up-to-date insight into how older Victorians feel about the upsides and the downsides of their lives in 2026.
Overall, a healthy majority of survey participants feel they are able to live a good life, are respected within and connected to their communities, and feel reasonably secure in their housing.
Yet there are many for whom this is clearly not the case. Isolation and financial hardship, age discrimination and lack of community respect were commonly reported. If these findings hold for Victoria at large, a significant percentage of older Victorians are not experiencing the wellbeing, dignity, security, and connection that they expect and deserve.
Older Victorians have a lot to say about changes that could improve their lives. Prominent suggestions included calls for more accessible health and social services, more age-suitable housing options, and reduced costs of maintaining a household. Many responses conveyed a desire to be better recognised, respected, and engaged in decision-making.
The Pulse survey was conducted as an online survey in May-July 2026. Nearly 500 people aged 50 and over shared their views, ranging widely across the age spectrum and across metropolitan, regional, and rural Victoria. While the group was diverse in many respects, there was some overrepresentation of women, homeowners, and self-funded retirees.
]]>Elder abuse is a prevalent and increasingly recognised issue affecting older Victorians. It can take many forms, including financial, psychological, physical, sexual, social abuse, and neglect, and is often shaped by complex personal, relational, and structural factors.
Many sectors have a role, and often a regulatory or professional responsibility, in identifying, responding to, and preventing abuse within the scope of their work.
This toolkit has been developed to support practitioners to strengthen their awareness of elder abuse and build their capacity to respond in ways that are effective, respectful, and uphold the dignity, rights, and autonomy of older people.
For a deeper understanding of elder abuse, its drivers, risk factors, and practical approaches to prevention and response, readers are encouraged to refer to the resources in section 3.1.
This toolkit aims to bridge the gap between concept and practice by offering practical resources that strengthen responses to elder abuse within aged care and support service contexts.
To support implementation, the toolkit includes action guides, checklists, flowcharts, sample policies, and a self-assessment tool that providers can use to review and strengthen their current practices. It also provides a brief overview of elder abuse in the context of aged care service delivery, highlighting key risks, barriers, and opportunities.
This toolkit is primarily intended for those engaged in at home aged care, including management, coordinators, and frontline workers who support older people in their homes and communities. However, the guidance may also be relevant to other professionals whose roles bring them into direct contact with older people.
The toolkit is designed to be applicable across a range of service types funded for aged care and home support, including domestic assistance, social support, transport, home maintenance, and other in-home and community supports. It recognises that workers in these roles may observe changes in an older person’s circumstances, wellbeing, or relationships that could indicate risk.
Elder abuse is a significant yet under-recognised form of family violence across Australia and is defined by the World Health Organisation as “a single or repeated act or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust which causes harm or distress to an older person”.
Elder abuse can be intentional or unintentional. It may take financial, emotional, psychological, physical, sexual, neglect, or social forms and often involves patterns of coercive control. Harm can include behaviours and experiences such as verbal harassment, financial loss – including the loss of a home or personal belongings – deliberately inflicted physical injury, or poor health due to neglect.
Elder abuse is typically carried out by someone known to the older person, with two thirds of those causing abuse or mistreatment being an adult child. Elder abuse affects people of all genders and walks of life. The abuse, however, disproportionately affects women, older people from culturally and racially marginalised communities, those with disabilities, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
For older people with diverse and intersecting identities, elder abuse may present in different ways. A range of factors may also mask abuse or create barriers to recognising it and seeking help. In this context, an intersectional approach can help workers identify these dynamics.
]]>Melbourne – Council on the Ageing (COTA) Victoria and Seniors Rights Victoria (SRV) extend congratulations to Ben Carroll, the new Premier of Victoria, alongside new Deputy Premier Gabrielle Williams. We also acknowledge and thank former premier Jacinta Allan for her leadership and service to the state.
As Victoria enters a new chapter, our state continues to face a defining demographic shift. By 2046, one in four Victorians will be over the age of 60. The decisions made by government today will determine whether Victoria is prepared for an ageing future or simply responds to challenges associated with shifting population age demographics as they emerge.
Earlier this year, our Preparing Victoria for an Ageing Future: COTA Victoria’s 2026 State Election Platform set out practical recommendations to help ensure Victoria remains a place where everyone can age with dignity, security, and opportunity. Our recommendations call for the government to making ageing a priority through a long-term strategy that truly addresses the challenges that older people face.
We look forward to working constructively with Premier Carroll and his government to advance priorities that matter to older Victorians, including such important topics as a whole-of-government strategy to prepare for an ageing population, more secure and affordable housing options for older people, improved access to health care and community-based supports, stronger protections against ageism and elder abuse, financial security and protection from cost-of-living pressures, and more.
COTA Victoria and Seniors Rights Victoria stand ready to work with Premier Carroll, ministers, and all members of Parliament in a spirit of partnership. We will continue to offer our services as a constructive, evidence-based advocate for older Victorians, working towards policies that improve quality of life, protect rights, and strengthen communities.
“We congratulate Premier Ben Carroll on his appointment and look forward to working with him to build a Victoria that is ready for the future,” said CEO, Ben Rogers. “As our population ages, we have an opportunity to lead the nation in creating communities where everyone can age well, with dignity, security, and connection.
“Premier Carroll today has an opportunity to be the voice for a growing cohort that can, and should, thrive.”
– ENDS –
Steve Wright
Membership and Communications Manager
Telephone: +61 3 9655 2159
Email: communications@cotavic.org.au
COTA Victoria is the leading not-for-profit member organisation representing the interests and rights of people aged over 50 in Victoria. Celebrating 75 years of service in 2026, we have led government, corporate and community thinking about the positive aspects of ageing in the state.
Today, our focus is on promoting opportunities for and protecting the legal rights of people 50+. We value ageing and embrace its opportunities for personal growth, contribution, and self-expression. This belief drives benefits to the nation and its states alongside communities, families, and individuals.
SRV is the key state-wide service dedicated to advancing the rights of older people and the early intervention into, or prevention of, elder abuse in our community. It is the only Community Legal Centre dedicated to preventing and responding to elder abuse within Victoria.
SRV has a team of experienced advocates, lawyers, and social workers who provide free information, advice, referral, legal advice, legal casework, and support to older people who are either at risk of or are experiencing elder abuse. SRV supports and empowers older people through the provision of legal advice directly to the older person.
]]>Part 1: Download full reference guide
Part 1: Download 2-page explainer
Elder abuse is a long-standing but often overlooked form of family violence and systemic harm. As Victoria’s population continues to age, it is critical that we recognise and respond to it as a serious public health and human rights issue driven by structural power imbalances and social inequality.
Effectively addressing elder abuse means moving beyond individual or neutral approaches to prevention and care. It requires understanding how broader social systems and inequalities shape people’s experiences.
This guide has been developed to support practitioners, policymakers, and organisations across various sectors. These include family violence, aged care, disability, legal, health, housing, and social services, all working to adopt an intersectional approach to elder abuse prevention and response.
It recognises that older people are not a single, uniform group. Their experiences of ageing, care, and abuse are shaped by the intersections of ageism with other systems of oppression such as racism, sexism, ableism, homelessness, classism, intersex stigma, homophobia, and transphobia.
An intersectional lens helps us understand that elder abuse is not necessarily the result of personal conflict or individual circumstances. It is deeply connected to broader social hierarchies that are reinforced in both relationships and institutions. Older people are not inherently vulnerable; rather, their vulnerability is produced through systemic barriers, social exclusion, and the misuse of power by others.
Throughout this guide, we emphasise the importance of structural analysis, inclusive practice, and systemic accountability. We also highlight the need to challenge assumptions in mainstream service models and respond to the specific needs of communities that are often overlooked, such as migrants and refugees, the diverse community of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, and asexual people (LGBTIQA+), and people with disability.
COTA Victoria and Seniors Rights Victoria hope this guide supports a shift in how organisations engage with older people – toward approaches that are person-centred, equity-driven, and grounded in justice. We invite all those working in this space to reflect on their own practices, address power imbalances, and commit to meaningful, systemic change.
Part 2: Download this full publication as a PDF
This publication presents Part 2 of the Intersectionality in Elder Abuse Reference Guide, building on Part 1, which considered the impact of disability, gender, linguistic and cultural diversity, and LGBTQIA+ identities on people’s exposure to ageism, discrimination, and barriers to elder abuse support. In this part, the guide pays specific focus to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, geography, accessibility and communication needs, social connectedness, and housing insecurity. We also include discussions on older people with additional care needs, carers, and people with disability or compromised decision-making ability.
The guide highlights that elder abuse is influenced by system inequalities and emphasises that older people are not a homogenous group; with experiences shaped by the intersections of ageism, discrimination and disadvantage amongst other factors.
In combination, the Intersectionality in Elder Abuse Reference Guides are designed to support policymakers, practitioners, and organisations in adopting an intersectional lens when developing and delivering elder abuse prevention and response. It does this by identifying the role system marginalisation plays in the prevalence, prevention, response and recovery to and from abuse.
We acknowledge the guide cannot fully capture the diversity or complexity of lived experiences of older people in Victoria, nor can it fully apply across other cultural or policy contexts. The guide is therefore intended as a starting point for further discussion and engagement.
Part 3: Download “Resource guide for individuals and community services”
Part 3: Download “Practice guide for government services and organisations”
The abuse and mistreatment of older people, commonly referred to as elder abuse, is a prevalent and growing issue in Australia. The consequences of elder abuse are significant: often causing significant psychological, financial, physical, and social harm to older people. These consequences can lead to premature mortality, broken relationships, a heightened risk of revictimisation, and reduced quality of life.
Elder abuse, and other forms of mistreatment towards older people, are heavily driven by ageism and largely occurs within families and other trusted relationships. Consequently, elder abuse often goes undetected, unreported, or undisclosed. This is especially true for those who face overlapping forms of marginalisation due to intersecting identity factors that reduce their access to, or trust in, support systems and services.
The Intersectionality in elder abuse reference guide part 3 is a resource guide that responds to the insights and advice relating to elder abuse detection, prevention, response, and recovery that is outlined in parts 1 and 2. It provides practical advice to support the detection of and response to elder abuse, particularly for those who face overlapping forms of marginalisation.
Download recommendations as a PDF
In 2025-2026, we committed to the development of a multi-part research guide on intersectionality in elder abuse. The Intersectionality in Elder Abuse Reference Guides (IRG) considered how overlapping characteristics and experiences of marginalisation affect the risk, presentation of, and the effectiveness of responses to, elder abuse across Victorian communities.
Informed by the case work of SRV, members of the Victorian Elder Abuse Strategic Alliance, and numerus other ageing and family violence-based organisations, the IRG paints a picture of the experiences of, and opportunities to mitigate the risks faced by, those who have or continue to experience discrimination beyond ageism.
Drawing on the findings of our IRG, this briefing provides nine recommendations to the Victorian Government, to support prevention and response initiatives to meet the demand within communities who face overlapping types of risk.
These document were produced by COTA Victoria and Seniors Rights Victoria, in consultation with the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria, Safe + Equal, Switchboard, and the Victorian Council of Social Services. Examples and case studies, provided by Seniors Rights Victoria, have been anonymised.
]]>COTA Victoria and Seniors Rights Victoria strongly support the State Disability Plan (SDP) and the Victorian Autism Plan (VAP) as important drivers of practical action to improve inclusion, accessibility and equity for Victorians with disability. This aligns closely with our mission to promote positive ageing and uphold the rights of older people for two key reasons:
We note that this refresh occurs at a critical point for disability policy, with reforms to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) heightening the importance of state programs and complementary action to enhance access and inclusion across mainstream services and environments.
Our leading recommendation is to incorporate a whole-of-life course framework that supports better responses to disability inclusion challenges at for those of all ages. This has been a missing element in previous plans, and this gap has contributed to the limited scope of actions targeted towards meeting the needs of older Victorians. Our concept for such a framework is set out at Attachment 1.
The body of this submission sets out key contextual information about ageing and disability, what we have heard from older Victorians, and broad recommendations about critical aspects of the plan. Suggested actions across the focus areas of the SDP are provided at Attachment 2.
We note that the SDP and VAP both incorporate broad commitments on specialist support services, including the state’s support for the NDIS. In this regard, we bring to your attention to COTA Victoria’s Agenda for Action for Older Victorians with a Disability (June 2025) which was developed in consultation with a range of partner statewide organisations and input from older Victorians, and previously submitted to government.
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