No Mandated Emergency Plans For Victorian Retirement Villages

The Victorian Minister for Housing has been questioned in the Victorian Parliament by Tania Maxwell the upper house member for Northern Victoria.  


The lack of mandated emergency evacuation plans and assembly points has long been regarded by village residents and resident advocate groups such as the Residents of Retirement Village Victoria as simply a disaster waiting to happen.

The member asked of the Minister, "President, I am also greatly concerned about the lack of any clear compulsion for Victorian retirement village operators to institute emergency evacuation plans or even assembly points. Naturally, the residents of these villages are typically older, more frail and less mobile than most other people – and, therefore, they invariably require greater consideration in such circumstances. Unfortunately, however, those needs of these often-highly-vulnerable Victorians don’t appear to be recognised or expressed in our State’s laws. By contrast, I understand that emergency and evacuation procedures are compulsory requirements in New South Wales retirement villages, for example, and at many other Victorian localities, including hospitals and public aged care facilities. As well as schools, early childhood education and care services, libraries, other State and local government buildings, and the like."