00:00Home should be Lynette's safe haven.
00:05Instead, the 75-year-old grandmother lives in constant fear.
00:10She's a nervous wreck, not knowing when he's going to show up and what he's going to do next.
00:17For years, Lynette has endured terrifying abuse at the hands of a family member
00:21the ABC has chosen not to name in his 30s,
00:25who's spiralled deeper into financial difficulties and drugs.
00:29I haven't got a lot of money, you know, to give away, but when I do, I give it to him.
00:36If I've got no money, I get abused. Sometimes I give him my last $20.
00:41In one of the most recent attacks, he pulled out a knife and threatened her.
00:46I thought he was going to use it on me, a big, big knife.
00:51Lynette's sister Wilma moved from Queensland to help,
00:54but even together, they say they're on their own.
00:57It's affecting her health. It's her mental health, you know, and physical health.
01:02In the NT, one in seven people over the age of 65 experience abuse,
01:08usually at the hands of a family member in the form of financial or psychological abuse or neglect.
01:15Yet, despite what advocates call a growing crisis, there are no specific elder abuse laws in the NT.
01:22Advocates say other laws are inadequate, and the NT is the only jurisdiction in Australia
01:29that lacks a dedicated legal service for older victims of abuse.
01:34Financial abuse, coercion, neglect. These don't meet the current legal threshold.
01:42And this is not a policing issue. It's a gap in legislation.
01:46All the people are getting abused at home, in silence. Someone needs to step in.
01:53Ramnik says that someone is the NT government.
01:56One of the challenges has been that it has been mixed into the domestic violence space.
02:01I agree that it's something that needs a very strong focus.
02:04It's quite different in the way elders are targeted.
02:09Despite a new national plan to end elder abuse on the way,
02:13these sisters worry they'll continue to be left exposed and unprotected in the NT.
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