Oakden Mental Health Facility

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:22): Supplementary, sir: is the minister telling this house that the person she reported to the house yesterday who was suspended from service for alleged abuse on 9 May was neither previously suspended nor under investigation?

The Hon. L.A. VLAHOS (Taylor—Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse) (14:22): As I have made it clear to the house in my ministerial statements over the last couple of weeks, the numbers in these matters change every day. As of today, I have made it clear to the house that 11 staff have been stood down pending further investigation and 25 have been reported to AHPRA, and those numbers will go up potentially if there continues to be incidents on this site.

However, today we have made it very clear that we will be expediting the move of the critical people that we need to protect to the Northgate aged-care facility, and we will be putting an additional layer of scrutiny on the staff who are conducting their business at the Oakden site in the Makk and McLeay wards. This government is very, very serious. I have made it clear on a number of occasions with all the ministerial statements that we will take a zero tolerance approach to elder abuse. I expect everyone on that site on all levels to be complying with that directive which the CE of Health will execute.