Download the full Annual Report 2025-2026
Message from our President and CEO
We are pleased to present the COTA Victoria and Seniors Rights Victoria Annual Report 2025-2026 in this, our 75th year of service to older Victorians.
Seventy-five years ago, our organisation began its journey under a very different name – the Old People’s Welfare Council of Victoria. In time, that evolved into the Victorian Council on the Ageing; today, we are proudly known as COTA Victoria – the Council on the Ageing Victoria.
While our name has changed, our core purpose has not.
For three-quarters of a century, we have stood for one simple but powerful idea: older people deserve to be heard, respected, protected, and empowered.
COTA Victoria has helped redefine ageing – not as decline, but as a time of contribution, growth, and opportunity. Through Seniors Rights Victoria, and starting back in 2008, we have built a service that is now the only state-wide Community Legal Centre dedicated to protecting older people from elder abuse.
Our recent work shows how deeply embedded this role is – we continue to play a leading part in shaping statewide planning and ensuring older Victorians are not overlooked. We are not just a service provider, but a trusted advocate, a policy leader, and a catalyst for change.
Our work proves that we are strong and resilient. Even in challenging environments, we have maintained strong financial performance, adapted to shifting funding landscapes, and continue to grow our programs and services.
This leadership has continued in 2025-26. We lead the sector, engage older Victorians, and make sure that they are not forgotten.
One of the highlights of this year was the launch of Australia’s first Age-Inclusive Emergency Preparedness Guidelines, making sure that older Victorians are considered and engaged as part of community preparedness for emergencies. We launched our new Lived Experience of Ageing Program to create a community of older Victorians ready, able, and supported to share their insights. We launched a new Older Men: New Ideas Advisory Group to ensure the continued success of such an all-important volunteer program. We continued to work to improve our services and offerings, including moving to a live call model for older people experiencing, or at risk of, elder abuse.
There are many other great examples of work captured in the rest of this report, and we encourage you to read through them all.
We are the key conduit to the community, in understanding their experiences, and either supporting older Victorians or amplifying their experience. We do this as follows:
- We engaged 1,500+ older Victorians as part of our advocacy.
- We had 2,000+ enquiries through our COTA Wise information line.
- We received nearly 15,000 calls on our elder abuse helpline.
Sadly, following a competitive tender process, this year saw the cessation of our Care Finder program delivery in the City of Kingston. We remain extremely proud of the impact of the program and the long-serving staff that delivered it. The organisation will continue to advocate for, and look for opportunities to support, older Victorians navigating the aged care system – including a number of resources released this year.
Despite this, we continue to be in a strong financial position, although we face a constrained funding environment. We are reporting a $400,000+ surplus for the 2025-26 financial year, building on our great financial performance from the previous year. But our goal is to not make money – it’s to make sure we are still delivering impact in another 75 years. These reserves will be vital as we face economic headwinds, political uncertainty, and a projected deficit in 2026-27. We remain in a strong position to handle a complex funding environment.
This stability matters, because it means we are here not just for today – as Victoria continues to age, we will be here for continued generations as they grow older.
No organisation reaches 75 years without extraordinary people, and this year has been no different. We acknowledge our dedicated staff, our passionate volunteers, our committed board members, our partners across government, community, and industry, and – most importantly – our valued members and supporters. We recognise that our achievements are collective ones. It is your commitment that has sustained this organisation and amplified its impact.
Stories from those we’re connected to remind us that older Victorians are not defined by their needs, but by their strengths, wisdom, and contributions.
Seventy-five years ago, a small group of people came together with a vision: to improve the lives of older Victorians. Today, that vision lives on in everything we do.
We are also extremely pleased to say that it is also captured in our strategic vision. The last year also saw us release our new Strategic Plan, which sets our direction for the next few years. This will see us focussing on how we can influence, empower, and amplify in order to deliver the impact we are aiming for, now and into the future.
While our language has certainly changed since our inception, our intent has not. We will champion the rights, dignity, and wellbeing of older Victorians – and encourage ageing in place where possible, and ageing well above all else.
We look forward to continue delivering on this in 2026-2027. Thank you all for your ongoing support.
Robert Caulfield, President
Ben Rogers, Chief Executive Officer