Gayle's Law

The Hon. C. BONAROS (14:44): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Health and Wellbeing a question about Gayle's Law.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: SA-Best and our Centre Alliance Senate candidate, Skye Kakoschke-Moore, recently revealed that a law in honour of murdered nurse Gayle Woodford is still not operational nearly a year after being passed by state parliament. Known as Gayle's Law, the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (South Australia) (Remote Area Attendance) Amendment Act 2017 requires remote area nurses to work in pairs when attending after-hours call-outs and is intended to reduce isolation and improve safety for health workers and practitioners, particularly in remote areas. Because the legislation has not been proclaimed by the state government, it has not been operationally enforced. When this was revealed in the paper just last week, the minister said, and I quote:

I am keen to hear the feedback from the consultation that is currently underway into Gayle's Law, ahead of the fine-tuning of regulations. We are determined to better protect our health professionals. This is a genuine consultation and I will not allow political point scoring and shortcuts to undermine effective and sustainable change.

Only a few days ago, the media revealed the government's consultation paper on the regulations needed to ensure the laws are operational was indeed only released this month—11 months after the legislation was passed. My questions to the minister are:

1. When did the consultation process actually commence?

2. What are the parameters of the consultation process and why is it being done now after the legislation was passed nearly a year ago and not before?

3. Who has the government met with to date?

4. Has the minister now met with Gayle's distraught family to explain the reasons for the government's delay in implementing the law and what are those reasons?

5. When can we expect to see the legislation actually commence?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:46): I thank the honourable member for her important question. Parliament passed the law commonly referred to as Gayle's Law in December 2017. It was formally titled the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (South Australia) (Remote Area Attendance) Amendment Act 2017. The purpose of the legislation is to provide greater protection for health practitioners working in remote areas of South Australia, requiring them to be accompanied by a second responder when responding to an out of hours, unscheduled, emergency call-out for treatment.

Gayle's Law provides the framework for ensuring that the safety of health practitioners working remotely is paramount. The former Labor government knew that many of the operational issues would need to be worked through after the legislation passed. I was certainly informed of that fact in the briefings themselves. Much of the detail about how this legislation will work will be fleshed out in the regulations. At the time Gayle's Law was passed, the former government made a commitment to consult on the content of the regulations.

Since the passage of the legislation through this place, a number of information sessions and discussions have been held with SA Health agencies and key stakeholders about the legislation's intent and operation, with a view to the development of the regulations. The honourable member asked: when did that consultation start? The discussions included consultation with the workforce and injury managers of each local health network and that consultation occurred in May. The government was only elected in March.

I have also had the opportunity, personally, to discuss the operation of the legislation and the content of the regulations with stakeholders. In particular, I discussed the operation of Gayle's Law in my first meeting as minister with the Nganampa Health Council, the organisation that delivers primary health services on the APY lands and Ms Woodford's employer at the time she was murdered.

I am advised that health services are honouring the spirit of the legislation, even while the detail of the regulations are being developed. Earlier this month, on 9 November 2018, I formally wrote to stakeholders and invited them to assist in the development of the regulations by providing feedback on a discussion paper that I distributed with that letter. The stakeholders included the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (SA Branch), the Rural Doctors Workforce Agency, the Nganampa Health Council, the Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia and the commonwealth Department of Health.

The discussion paper seeks feedback on a range of issues, including how after-hours or emergency care is delivered in remote areas, which geographic areas are defined as a remote area and how second responders should be contacted in remote areas. Responses to the discussion paper are due by Friday 21 December 2018. I am advised that, once stakeholder responses have been consolidated, further discussions will take place in early 2019, ahead of the finalisation of the regulations.

Earlier this month, I spoke to Gayle's widower, Keith Woodford, about the legislation and the steps we are taking to develop and implement the regulations. When I spoke to Mr Woodford, I extended an invitation to brief him and other members of Gayle's family. At the family's request, the meeting will take place in December.

I must say that I am disappointed that Ms Kakoschke-Moore is proposing to make this an election issue. She said she wants a law at a national level and that she wants to make it an election issue. I will make the point that, if she does see this as an urgent issue, Centre Alliance does have Senate colleagues in the federal parliament and she can introduce legislation immediately and address it as an urgent matter.