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Communities and Justice

Ageing and Disability Commissioner Act Independent Review

Following passage through NSW Parliament, on 3 April 2024 the NSW Governor assented to the Ageing and Disability Commissioner Amendment Act 2024 which makes amendments to the Ageing and Disability Commissioner Act 2019 following the independent Review.

The main changes are summarised below:

Commencing an investigation where the Ageing and Disability Commissioner (ADC) is unable to access the adult – sections 13(11) and (12)

  • The ADC will now be able to commence an investigation into an allegation of abuse, neglect or exploitation of an older person or adult with disability without their consent, if the ADC has been unable to gain access to them despite reasonable efforts to do so. This may assist with those matters where a party is preventing access to the adult.

Some discretion in the reports the ADC refers to the NSW Police – section 13(9A)

  • The ADC will now have a small amount of discretion in the matters that they refer to NSW Police. This means that the ADC will be able to take into account and uphold the wishes of the adult not to report the matter to police in appropriate cases.

Exchanging information with NGOs and private practitioners – section 14A

  • A new section of the Act has been introduced to enable the ADC to exchange relevant information with a person or body that provides, or is able to provide, supports to adults with disability or older people.

Official Community Visitors – section 24A

  • To assist with the operation of the Official Community Visitors Scheme, NDIS providers and assisted boarding house operators are now required to provide information to the ADC about the locations of their visitable services (or face penalty).

Additional oversight by Joint Parliamentary Committee– Part 5A

  • A new part of the Act appoints a Joint Parliamentary Committee on Ageing and Disability to monitor and review the functions of the Commissioner.

Background

Alan Cameron AO was commissioned by then Minister for Disability Services, the Hon. Natasha Maclaren-Jones MLC, and then Minister for Seniors, the Hon. Mark Coure, MP to conduct the independent review of the Act.

The independent review was conducted to determine whether:

  • the policy objectives of the Act remained valid; and
  • the terms of the Act were still appropriate to help meet those objectives.

Supporting documents:

Have your say

Mr Cameron sought input from the community including:

  • people with lived experience of ageing and/or disability and their families and carers,
  • agencies representing the ageing and/or disability population i.e. peak and advocacy groups,
  • agencies representing specific population groups including Aboriginal, CALD, regional/rural/remote, LGBQTI,
  • ageing and/or disability community based service providers,
  • government agencies who work with or provide support to adults with disability and/or older people, and
  • the broader general public.

Public consultation occurred November - December 2022.

Submissions to the review of the Act opened on 17 November 2022 and closed on 16 December 2022. We received a total of 22 submissions and have permission to publish the following 21 submissions. We have also published the reports from the focus group consultations with people with lived experience.

Please note: The following submissions cannot be read by screen readers. If you require an accessible version, please email us.

Last updated:

10 May 2024