Groups in context - legal definitions
Legal definitions of groups
Aged
The terms 'elderly' and 'aged' mean people aged over 65 years of age.
Source: Caring for the Elderly' - an Overview of Aged Care Support and Services in Australia Parliamentary library
Source: Centrelink
Homeless
A person is homeless if, and only if, he or she has inadequate access to safe and secure housing.
Source: Supported Accommodation Assistance Program Act 1994
Disabled
The term “disabled person” means any person unable to ensure by himself or herself, wholly or partly, the necessities of a normal individual and/or social life, as a result of deficiency, either congenital or not, in his or her physical or mental capabilities.
Source: Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986
A person is eligible for the Disability Support Pension of they have a physical, intellectual or psychiatric impairment which prevents them from working, or for people who are permanently blind.
Source: Centrelink
Disability means:
(a) total or partial loss of a person’s bodily or mental functions or of a part of a person’s body, or
(b) the presence in a person’s body of organisms causing or capable of causing disease or illness, or
(c) the malfunction, malformation or disfigurement of a part of a person’s body, or
(d) a disorder or malfunction that results in a person learning differently from a person without the disorder or malfunction, or
(e) a disorder, illness or disease that affects a person’s thought processes, perception of reality, emotions or judgment or that results in disturbed behaviour.
Source: Anti discrimination Act 1977
Sole parent
Sole means exclusive. Sole care, it is considered, means full and unshared responsibility for the physical care and upbringing of the child.
Source: Australian Taxation Office
Youth
Young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years.
Source: Census Update 32 - March 2004 - Australia's Youth - Australian Bureau of Statistics
Families in crisis
A person is eligible for a Crisis Payment if they are in severe financial hardship because they have been forced to leave their home and find a new home because of an extreme event like domestic violence or their house burning down.
Source: Centrelink
Chronically ill
Chronic health condition or chronic illness is a condition which has lasted, or is expected to last, six months or more (also referred to as long term health condition or chronic disease).
Source: Australian Social Trends 2006, Australian Bureau of Statistics
Socioeconomically disadvantaged
Social disadvantage is typically associated with low income, high unemployment, low levels of educational attainment and jobs in relatively unskilled occupations.
Source: National Health Survey User’s Guide 2001, Australian Bureau of Statistics
Gay and lesbian
Males or female who identify as being attracted to persons of the same sex.
Source: Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission website
Rural families
Rural families live in rural localities which are defined as clusters of between 200 and 999 people and the rural balance which comprises the remainder of the State or Territory not classified as major urban, other urban or rural locality.
Source: Indigenous settlements in Australia, Australian Bureau of Statistics 2001
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