Oakden Mental Health Facility

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:25): A supplementary: how can the Premier stand by the minister's claim that she acted immediately when we now have evidence, in the form of the letter from the Principal Community Visitor to the minister dated October last year, that she was asked by the community visitor to set up the investigation? How can he now state to this parliament that it was, in fact, at her instigation?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:25): There are about three or four different formulations of that question, so I will address the question in the broad. What the minister did, as soon as she received the letter from Mr Corcoran, the community visitor, was that she asked for that to be considered and investigated. That directly led to the commissioning of the inquiry only two months later. So the most significant inquiry that has actually occurred in relation to this issue occurred within two months of the matter being drawn to her attention after she sought proper advice about it. That is precisely what you would expect the minister to do—to get proper advice and then to put in place a thoroughgoing process of review.

Obviously there was a series of considerations had to be gone into before the Chief Psychiatrist could be commissioned to do that, including consideration given as to the nature and scope of the review. It is a substantial step to go from a complaint, a series of complaints, even serious ones, to a suggestion that the service entirely is one that needs such a dramatic action. The fact that the minister reached that conclusion is proper, and it has ultimately led us to the position we are in today, where we are now looking deeply into issues that had not been revealed in the past.