Annual General Meeting summary

An AGM is more than just an official requirement for ticking off an agenda – it’s also a chance to reflect on the past year’s achievements and challenges.

Our 6^th AGM held on 28 November allowed us to celebrate progress, reaffirm our mission and ensure we’re heading into the future with a strong base for action.

The meeting was opened by Co-Chair Sue Leitch who welcomed participants and reiterated EAAA’s commitment to ensuring equitable and inclusive responses to end elder abuse for people with diverse characteristics and life experiences.

GUEST SPEAKER

This year’s guest speaker was Nick Tebbey, CEO of Relationships Australia National. Nick emphasised the critical role of collective efforts among members of EAAA to ensure older Australians live free from violence, abuse and neglect and contribute fully to society.

Nick spoke about the work of Relationships Australia in pioneering relational approaches to elder abuse through self-funded and federally supported programs. These programs have proven essential in addressing intergenerational conflict and supporting older Australians.

He also highlighted the need for political urgency to address elder abuse including the release of the overdue National Plan and universal access to elder abuse services across Australia.

Nick celebrated EAAA’s role as a respected advocate for older people, reaffirmed Relationship Australia’s partnership with EAAA and confirmed that his organisation stood ready to work alongside EAAA to drive meaningful change.

REPORTS

The AGM received reports from the Co-Chairs, Executive Officer, Treasurer, Finance, Risk and Audit Committee and Directors. All reports were accepted and passed unanimously.

The reports from the Co-Chairs and Executive Officer are shared below.

BOARD ELECTION

Nominations for the vacant Board position had been received from Catherine Henry, Dominique Horne, Graeme Westaway, Kathy Mansfield and Sue Leitch.

From this strong, skilled and committed group of candidates, the meeting re-elected Sue Leitch to the Board of Directors. Co-Chair Diedre Timms thanked all the nominees for their passion and interest in being part of EAAA and encouraged them to maintain their involvement with us.

Diedre also thanked the EAAA staff team for their expertise, skills and commitment to the members, to each other and to advocating for older Australians. The contribution of the Board and the Co-Chairs was recognised for their continuing work in driving EAAA forward.

The meeting also gratefully acknowledged the support of the Attorney-General’s Department and more recently, the Department of Social Services, for their ongoing backing of EAAA’s work.

THANK YOU

EAAA would like to thank all the members who participated in our AGM this year. We value your continued support and commitment and look forward to working with you all in 2025.

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Co-Chairs’ Report

EAAA has had another very successful year, extending our influence as the peak body for the prevention of elder abuse and attracting new sources of funding. We have progressed work on delivering our new strategic plan, we have recruited new directors and staff and supported the organisation through numerous community consultations.

Preparation for the next Australian Elder Abuse Conference in Adelaide has been extensive and we look forward to the conference in July. These activities have been closely aligned to our Strategic Plan.

The plan’s strategic priorities are:

• Influence policy and encourage greater financial investment
• Unite communities against elder abuse through awareness and knowledge
• Collaborate in the fight against elder abuse with organisations and individuals
• Build a strong and effective peak body

We farewelled long-term directors Russell Westacott, Jenny Blakey and Carolanne Barkla during this reporting period, at the AGM in November 2023. Russell, Jenny and Carolanne were all founding directors of EAAA and we are very grateful for their wisdom and insight during their time serving as directors of EAAA. We especially thank Russell and Jenny for their contributions as Co-Chairs of EAAA. We have continued to work with Carolanne Barkla in her role as CEO of ARAS, as our co-host for the conference in Adelaide, and this has ‘softened’ her departure as another long-serving director.

As we head to the close of the financial year, we are very close to the final details for our conference and we have greatly appreciated the support from our cohosts ARAS.

We thank the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department for their ongoing support and welcome support from the Commonwealth Department of Social Services to support the work to eliminate elder abuse.

We thank all directors for their commitment, knowledge and wisdom during the year. We have welcomed new directors during the year and at the AGM, Rebecca Edwards, Tara Simpson, Medha Gunawardana and Brian Attard.

We thank all the staff for their enthusiasm, valuable contributions and professionalism, especially our Executive Officer Bev Lange, during a particularly productive year. Our gratitude goes to those members and other community members who have volunteered in various ways, including the Advisory Group and conference committees.

Executive Officer’s Report

I wish to acknowledge the traditional owners of the Darkinjung land on which I’m on today, and recognise their continuing connection to land, water and culture. I pay my respects to their elders past and present.

Collaboration has informed our work this year across Compass, submissions, Memberships, Turn Up The Volume! Conference and new projects. The opportunity to engage with people and organisations has had significant benefits to the quality of work, connections to sectors and to our capacity to represent the views of our members and key stakeholders to governments.

In committing to a Second National Plan to Prevent and Respond to the Abuse of Older People in Australia, the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department undertook to listen to community members and service providers, through Elder Abuse Action Australia, about the priorities for that Plan.

It was our privilege to travel across the country and listen to people with lived experience, service providers, community organisations and others who were passionate about stopping the abuse of older people. They generously shared their observations about the strengths of the current response as well as the issues requiring immediate and/or sustained focus.

In developing the report to the Commonwealth, we endeavoured to bring forth the complexity of the abuse of older people living in Australia, including:

• the tension between protecting older people from abuse AND upholding older people’s privacy and right to autonomy
• the drive among some (although not all) older people to hold onto relationships even in the face of abuse
• the fragmented and inadequate access to the specialist and mainstream service system response across the country.

We have also sought to reflect on the deep humanity of the experience.

This same humanity is woven into Compass through the stories people have shared not only in the content but in comments on social media posts of their experiences.  The success of Compass in becoming a trusted source is testament to our content team, creative partners and importantly, the many contributors with whom we collaborated to bring new content and resources to the thousands of people who visit Compass on a daily basis. Our compass audience has grown by 26% in the past twelve months.

Conferences are an exemplar of collaboration as abstracts are formed between academic teams, and services and their clients all focused on laying a foundation for delegates to learn, be challenged and bring innovation into their work once the conference has packed up. Turn Up the Volume was the second conference EAAA has organised and I acknowledge the contribution of Aged Rights Advocacy Service as our co-host. Planning has commenced for the 2026 conference.

We were fortunate to be awarded a tender by the Department of Social Services in May 2024 to develop awareness and education content for the FDSV workforce nationally. Engaging with the community and FDSV workforce in 10 locations across Australia has provided great insight into what needs to be included and considered for this online/offline application. EAAA acknowledges the importance of this work and look forward to providing a more detailed report on progress at next year’s AGM.

I’d like to acknowledge the Commonwealth Attorney General’s Department for their support of EAAA this past year. The department has trusted EAAA with some important projects and we’ve appreciated the opportunity to share ideas, develop new work and bring our communities together.

Collaborating does start at home and with our staff head count doubling in the past 12 months and new directors joining the board I am privileged and proud to work with a great team who bring expertise, passion and commitment to EAAA and to olde people in our community.

Like other organisations we are ambitious beyond our funding and this team along with AGD, our Compass and conference partners, members and stakeholders make the important work of EAAA possible.