Chief Psychiatrist

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:31): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse a question about special reports to parliament by statutory officers.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Yesterday, the minister tabled the Chief Psychiatrist's Annual Report for 2016-17. Unlike previous annual reports from the Chief Psychiatrist, this year's report is short, bland and one might describe it as lifeless. It is less than a third of the length of last year's annual report and makes no mention of the Older Persons Mental Health Service at Oakden or the fact that the Chief Psychiatrist, in the financial year that is relevant to the report, undertook a review into the services at the Oakden facility.

What this year's annual report does mention—and this is in the Chief Psychiatrist's brief covering letter—is that it meets the requirements of Premier and Cabinet Circular PC 103 on annual reporting. Circular 103 is the same circular that the Principal Community Visitor referred to in his annual report to parliament when he said that he felt compelled to produce a vastly different report and reduced his capacity to discuss or raise issues of concern. When the question of whether circular 103 gagged the Principal Community Visitor was raised with the government earlier this month, it advised the ABC that:

If necessary, special reports can be provided to the Minister for the purposes of tabling to Parliament.

The special reports referred to in that statement are special reports that are specifically mentioned in the legislation supporting the role of the Principal Community Visitor. My questions to the minister are:

1. Did the minister read the Chief Psychiatrist's report before he tabled it in parliament yesterday and, if so, was he surprised to find no mention of Oakden in that report?

2. Given that, unlike the Principal Community Visitor, there is no capacity for the Chief Psychiatrist to make special reports to parliament, how will the parliament be made aware of the Chief Psychiatrist's concerns?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse) (14:33): I thank the honourable member for his question. There are a few different components so I will try to deal with each of them. The Chief Psychiatrist's report in this state is a very important one. The importance of that role is likely to continue to increase as we develop more community awareness around the importance of mental health services and the extraordinary demands placed upon them.

The Chief Psychiatrist's role, I think, has also been particularly highlighted by the exercise that he has undertaken in respect to Oakden, and how important that is to the government in terms of informing its response to Oakden going forward. We are, of course, currently in the process of implementing the Chief Psychiatrist's recommendations in that respect.

In that context I was not entirely surprised around the lack of references to Oakden to which the Hon. Mr Wade refers, because the question and the issues there have been dealt with more substantially in the body of the Chief Psychiatrist's report on Oakden itself. Notwithstanding the fact, it is an incredibly important issue, and I can understand the context of the Hon. Mr Wade's question.

The Hon. Mr Wade is right to refer to the changes that were required of annual reports in the context of the Premier's circular, and I have been advised of that. It is important to remind ourselves that the object of that exercise is to make sure that annual reports are easily digestible and presentable to the South Australian community at large. Trying to balance the appetite for infinite detail versus trying to make something easily consumed by the general public is always going to be a difficult balancing act for governments in providing reports, and of course we want to make sure that institutionally, particularly statutory officers like the Community Visitor or the Chief Psychiatrist, have the capacity to be able to provide substantial reports, to which the public should be entitled in important matters such as these, and it needs to be maintained.

The Hon. Mr Wade is right to refer to the fact that the Principal Community Visitor has the capacity (and this is specifically prescribed in the legislation that relates to them) to be able to provide special reports to the parliament. I have met with Mr Corcoran and conveyed to him my desire that he utilise that in any way that he sees fit, and I anticipate that he may or may not take that up in due course.

Similarly, the same principles apply to the Chief Psychiatrist. Without quoting the act specifically, I will take it on Mr Wade's word that there is not specific reference to the capacity for the Chief Psychiatrist to be able to do that in his report, but that does not prevent him from doing it, and I welcome any information or reports the Chief Psychiatrist wants to provide to me as the minister at any point in time.