Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I will not prolong this debate much longer, but I would point out to the minister that neglect can be as bad in its outcome as serious physical abuse. You can neglect a person by starving them. We have already heard of cases, rare indeed, where food is withheld from people and they are not fed. So neglect can be a very serious form of abuse indeed. You might argue financial abuse is not life threatening, and that is probably right. You might argue that emotional abuse is not life threatening—and perhaps that is true—but I am not so sure about psychological abuse. I think that can lead to very harmful outcomes, including mental illness.

I think it is a great pity that the government has drawn the line here, because we are talking about highly vulnerable people. If you are in a nursing home or even a hostel these days then you are going to be pretty vulnerable. As we know, people do not last very long when they enter nursing home and residential care. I strongly object, Minister, to the government taking this line—in particular with neglect, but I also think that psychological abuse ought to be covered by the provisions of this bill. We will certainly be pursuing this into the future, but in the dying moments of this debate I ask you to reconsider.