Question Time

Disability Services

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:18): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Human Services regarding safeguarding and worker screening.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: In correspondence dated August 2018, the then chief executive of the Department of Human Services wrote to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission about information exchange protocols between the state government and the NDIS. In April 2020, Annie Smith tragically died while under the care of an unscreened worker who worked for an agency with dozens of unscreened workers.

On 27 May 2020, the acting chief executive of the Department of Human Services wrote to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission and requested that an appropriate information exchange protocol be put in place urgently so that the South Australian screening unit can be made aware of serious matters of investigation. It is now nearly two years since the chief executive of the minister's agency wrote to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission about problems with information exchange. My questions to the minister are:

1. Did the two years of inaction between information sharing between the state and federal government contribute to the death of Annie Smith?

2. When was the minister first advised that there was a problem with information exchange that was so serious it required correspondence between the heads of agencies?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:19): I thank the honourable member for his question. Clearly, this has been a matter that my department has been seeking information protocols about with the Quality and Safeguards Commission for some time. I have actually referred to this previously in question time. I am not sure whether the drafter of the question was aware of that and had reviewed it prior to drafting a question for the Leader of the Opposition.

If I can just remind honourable members what a screening check is. It is an assessment of a relevant criminal history check. Now that we have continuous monitoring, if somebody is charged, or there is a matter that is brought to the attention of any of the databases that are continuously monitored, then that information is provided to the screening unit. Clearly, the person who was the support worker for Ann Marie Smith did not have a criminal history because she went through that process. Her employer applied for that screening check on her behalf and they were successful in gaining a screening check because there was nothing in the database.

The matter of the information that the Quality and Safeguards Commission has, which the South Australian government has been very keen to receive information on, is in relation to any care concerns. Our argument has been that matters that are of concern to the Quality and Safeguards Commission—indeed, I understand there may be matters that South Australia Police are also aware of, which information protocols we think would be beneficial for the screening unit to be aware of.

My understanding is that the Quality and Safeguards Commission has agreed with the Department of Human Services. I will double-check that that has been formalised, but clearly we have been advocating for that on a continuous basis. If the agreements have not quite been finalised, they are either finalised or they are very close to being finalised, but I will double-check as to the status of those—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: I am aware that the Quality and Safeguards Commission and the Department of Human Services have been actively communicating on this issue. My understanding is that they had been completed, but in the interests of providing the most up-to-date information, I will double-check with my acting CE and provide that information prior to the end of question time.