Responding to the financial abuse of older people - Loddon ...

Schedule 1: Office of the Public Advocate –
other State and Territory equivalents
Jurisdiction
Governing
body
Victoria Office of
the Public
Advocate
New South Wales Office of the
Protective
Commissioner
Queensland Office of
the Adult
Guardian
Public
Advocate
Powers (conferred
by legislation)
Guardianship and
Administration Act
1986 (Vic) section 15
Instruments Act 1958
(Vic) section 125V
Powers of Attorney
Act 2003 (NSW)
Protected Estates Act
1983 (NSW)
Powers of Attorney
Act 1998 (Qld)
Guardianship and
Administration Act
2000 (Qld)
Avenue
of relief
Victorian
Civil and
Administrative
Tribunal (VCAT)
New South Wales
Guardianship
Tribunal
Ombudsman
Guardianship
and
Administration
Tribunal
Differences to the Victorian Office
of the Public Advocate
The Office of the Protective Commissioner provides
financial management services to people with
disabilities but it does not have an ‘investigatory’ role.
The equivalent statutory powers are shared between two
statutory bodies: the Office of the Adult Guardian and
the Office of the Public Advocate. The Public Advocate
is an independent statutory officer who identifies
widespread situations of abuse, exploitation or neglect of
people with impaired capacity and reports these findings
to State Parliament. It does not deal with individual
cases; rather, it looks at widespread deficiencies in
institutions and systems that affect a large number of
people with impaired capacity (i.e. systemic advocacy).
The Adult Guardian, also an independent statutory
officer, has powers including to investigate individual
cases and to act as guardian.
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