Disability Services

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (14:46): Supplementary: can the minister state that any pay rates, entitlements and conditions currently afforded the workers in this sector will be guaranteed in any tender documents that the government puts out to the private market so that these workers' conditions are guaranteed?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:46): I think the suggestion of a tender document might not eventuate, but we shall have to see how this process shapes itself going forward. I certainly think that the non-government providers would be—and I may well be putting words in their mouth—so keen to adopt the workforce that they would be in a position to guarantee those sorts of conditions. Those are the sorts of negotiations that we need to have going forward. We need to have everybody involved in those negotiations. We need to have the unions to be having those discussions with prospective other providers as well, because we want to make this as robust and respectful a process as we can, because it is very important to go with those three guiding principles that I referred to earlier to ensure that there is stability as much as is possible.