Abstract
This paper examines the issue of supported decision-making as it applies to people living with dementia. It seeks to explain the importance of this mechanism as a concept which is central to promoting the human rights of persons with disabilities in Australia, within the context of broader global developments. The key aspects of the Australian guardianship system are outlined with a view to illustrating the way in which these legal frameworks have traditionally formally operated to exclude the participation of persons living with dementia from involvement in decision-making. The focus of the paper is the recent guardianship legislation in Victoria, which is currently the only Australian jurisdiction to adopt a formal supported decision-making model, and which explicitly privileges the ‘will and preferences’ of the person who is the subject of proceedings under the legislation. The author conducted desktop research analysis of 24 decisions of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) between 2021 and 2024 to ascertain the effect, if any, of these new provisions on the outcome of proceedings involving persons with dementia, building upon an earlier article which examined 27 decisions of VCAT between 2019 and 2020. Five key themes are identified, the most significant of which is the evident impact of the embedded statutory prioritising of the person’s will and preferences on VCAT’s decision-making processes.