CEO Update April 2026

1 Apr 2026

For COTA NT Club and Associate Members

COTA NT has been lobbying seniors’ behalf on quite a few issues during recent weeks and it feels as if we haven’t stopped since our return from the Christmas close!

We’ve rescheduled our Katherine Seniors Expo to the 30 April and are keeping our fingers crossed it can go ahead. We have the Audience with Peter Warren coming up. We have new staff on board, who are already setting up activities and events in Darwin, Darwin Rural and Alice Springs regions. We have updated the delivery of our membership services, trained in using a new CRM system and will be rolling out improvements over the next few months.

Below is my round up as emailed to you. 

Advocacy

 

Housing Strategy

The Northern Territory Government is developing a new Territory-wide Housing Strategy to guide how housing is planned and delivered across the NT. COTA NT has made a submission and shared the survey asking stakeholders to have their say. You can access it here. Closes 17 April.

NT Memory Clinic

This clinic was due to lose its funding on 30 June. Two nurses were funded via the Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP)and which stops in June when Support at Home begins.  After successful lobbying to federal Minister for Health and Ageing Mark Butler, NT Members of Parliament, media and stakeholders, the funding for two nurses is now continued until June 2027. We will continue to lobby for this to continue indefinitely (read our media release – this led to interview with Katie Woolf 360 on 23 March. During this broadcast, news was received about the funding continuing.)

Disability Parking Permits – City of Darwin

Without informing anyone or without any consultation, the City of Darwin decided to charge for the first 15 minutes for people with a disability parking permit to use disability parking spaces. The City of Darwin already receives $2.3 million in revenue from parking fines, so regardless of revenue shortfalls, we found it unacceptable that they were charging the most vulnerable members of community to park. 

We wrote to the Mayor of the City of Darwin on 2 December. We have not received an answer to date. We also wrote to the NT Minister for Seniors, Jinson Charls MLA, who has also written to the Mayor.

St John’s Ambulance Funding

 COTA NT is also lobbying hard on behalf of St John’s Ambulance who have not yet received their funding agreement, which was due in October.  St Johns have received an increase of over 30% in their workload and even normal funding has not been forthcoming. COTA NT believes that St Johns Ambulance service is an essential service and should be funded accordingly, just as Careflight is funded by the NT Government for 60 months. Why can’t St Johns Ambulance service have at least a five-year funding agreement with increments each year?  Then as we all know – forward planning for human resources and capital expenditure can at least be considered. Residents in Darwin, especially in Darwin need to have confidence in their essential services, of which St Johns Ambulance is a vital part.

ABC news report: St John Ambulance NT reaches ‘critical failure point’ during ‘extraordinary event’ in Darwin 28 March 2026

Voluntary assisted dying

We shared a letter from former Chief Minister Marshall Perron and leading VAD advocate to NT Attorney General Marie-Anne Boothy. In his letter of 19 February 2026,  Perron urges acceptance of the LCAC Committee’s conclusion that an individual’s eligibility to access voluntary assisted dying should be based on intolerable and hopeless suffering, not an arbitrary [prognostic] timeframe. It was published with his permission. You can read it here.

Older Persons’ Abuse in the Northern Territory

We support Darwin Community Legal Service’s Policy Directive to the Northern Territory Government which includes establishment of a dedicated Adult Safeguarding Unit, recommendation to changes to domestic violence and criminal laws to explicitly recognise and respond to elder abuse, better safeguards against financial abuse, investment in elder abuse services, training for healthcare workers, police, banks, and legal professionals, data collection and community education.

State of the Nation

We have also shared insights from COTA Australia’s State of the Nation survey. You can read it here.

Other news

• Seniors Voice Feb 2026 The last issue was distributed to over 105 outlets in the NT and included news, health, aged care, Letters, comment, digital literacy, lifestyle, well-being, finance and travel pages (read it again here). You will receive the next issue due in May 2026 as a (reduced size) PDF by email. (Other recipients of the digital edition receive the website link only).
• Selfie with a Senior We are sponsoring the first prize in the Selfie with a Senior photographic competition, which aims to recognise inspiring seniors and encourage intergenerational connection (read more).
• COTA Members Websites There are now two website logins for our financial Members. COTA Members (individual and joint) and Club and Associate Members. This has enabled us to present and provide access to membership benefits more appropriately. Individual and joint members are for example now offered access to a free will making service. If you need help accessing the Members website, contact Ken on . 
• COTA news Meet our new staff member based in Alice Springs, Janet Brown.
• Seniors Month Grants
• Updated translated checklists help seniors and providers navigate home care contracts