Disability Services

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:22): Supplementary question arising from the answer: in the almost two years since your chief executive wrote to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission in August 2018, has there been one single change in information sharing that you are aware of—one single change?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:23): The NDIS and all those environments are a very dynamic environment.

The Hon. K.J. Maher: One change?

The PRESIDENT: Order!

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: I have actually explained a whole range of these matters previously, so some of what the honourable member is asking me, if the person who drafted the question on his behalf had referred to my previous answers in this place then they would be already aware of the situation. As of February 2021—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —the new NDIS worker screening situation will come into play. That was originally due to be in place, I think, by 30 June 2019. It was then going to be 30 June 2020. South Australia has been ready for the start date in advance of the new rules coming into place. Indeed, we passed the legislation in this place last year to enable the national worker screening to come into place then. So a lot of these matters have already been canvassed extensively.

What the new worker screening check for disability services provides is that a worker who applies for a screening in one jurisdiction has portability for their screening in other jurisdictions. What that requires of both the commonwealth and state systems is that those systems will be interacting so that they can share that information.

South Australia has been ready to implement that, so we have been ready to press the go-live on that in this current calendar year; unfortunately, other jurisdictions haven't been ready with that information exchange, so that will now be 2021. But we have been regularly seeking that the Quality and Safeguards Commission would also share any of its care concerns that it might have about individual workers with us and I am pleased that that has been expedited.