Community Visitor Scheme

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (14:40): Supplementary: given that visits by officers of the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission are only undertaken when a problem is reported and that the community visitor had a proven track record of uncovering issues with random visits, will the minister admit that a combination of these two approaches is the key to moving forward?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:41): I think the honourable member misunderstands what the quality and safeguarding commission can do. They can do unannounced visits. I have heard people in the disability community make the claim that they can't; they can. As recently as last week I have seen a letter signed by the federal minister, the Hon. Stuart Robert, that says that the commission certainly is able to do that.

I think one of the lessons that we have to learn from Oakden, if I can remind Labor members of that disastrous experience, is that when you have multiple agencies who have oversight, they need to be clear about what their roles are. The primary investigation body for these issues now is the quality and safeguarding commission. I have certainly made numerous representations to the commonwealth government that I believe that a Community Visitor Scheme is a useful adjunct to that as we go forward. We are yet to receive the final report that the commonwealth has commissioned on that matter. That is a position that I continue to argue.