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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 9 Hansard (28 August) . . Page.. 3458 ..

and work into elder abuse, and Ms Sheryl Hastie, Senior Policy Officer with Queensland Government, informed the Forum.

A draft implementation work plan was developed at the Forum, and is currently being finalised by the ACT Office for Ageing in consultation with members of the Elder Abuse Prevention Taskforce and relevant ACT Government agencies.

The final workplan will identify strategies, key actions, milestones, responsibilities, budget support and performance measures, and will be publicly released in October 2003.

To date the Government has expended approximately $6000 of the $100,000 that was allocated for the elder abuse project in the 2003-2004 financial year. This expenditure has contributed to: the examination of the material of the NSW Advisory Committee on Elder Abuse consistent with the recommendations of the Assembly's Standing Committee's report; meetings with NSW and Queensland Government officials to discuss responses to elder abuse within those jurisdictions; and the facilitation of the Project Planning Forum noted above, consistent with the recommendations of the Standing Committee that the Government take a whole-of-government approach in developing policy and service delivery responses in the area of elder abuse.

(2) Both the protocols regime and the community awareness campaign need to be in place before the hotline can be launched. Work is currently being undertaken on these two aspects of the elder abuse project and are scheduled for completion in late 2003. Accordingly, it is anticipated that the hotline will operational in early 2004.

(3) As noted in (2) above, the community awareness campaign is currently being developed and is scheduled for implementation in late 2003.

(4) The development of the comprehensive training materials for professionals who come in contact with older people has commenced.

The training materials will be comprehensive, and will target a broad range of professionals with varying exposure and responsibility in the welfare of older people.

Completion of all training material is scheduled for late 2003. Introduction of the training programs and training materials is scheduled for early 2004.

(5) A benchmarking regime to monitor the effectiveness of the Government 's initiatives in respect of elder abuse prevention is currently being developed as part of the overall strategy to prevent the incidence of elder abuse in the ACT. The benchmarking regime will be completed before the commencement of the community awareness campaign.

Juvenile crime

(Question No 904)

Mr Pratt asked the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, upon notice, on Thursday, 28 August 2003:

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