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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-05-10 Daily Xml
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Oakden Mental Health Facility

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:25): Supplementary: can the Premier confirm to the house that not only didn't he seek any information on this report but nobody on his staff sought any information regarding this report from the time of 10April through to the time that it was publicly released, after cabinet.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:25): The commissioning of this inquiry was a matter that was reported to the cabinet late last year. Indeed, the inquiry itself was scoped over the Christmas period and commenced, at least in its public announcement, in January. So, we were familiar with the fact that the minister had identified issues and that she wanted to have a detailed probe.

Remembering at that time that what we were dealing with was a series of individual instances, what has now been revealed by the report is a deep and systemic degree of abuse and neglect, which is alarming and which had escaped even the attention of the Chief Psychiatrist, who had been in the facility in June of last year. Indeed, the aged-care accreditation agency, which is charged with the responsibility of considering all of these questions—standards of care, leadership, culture, essentially abuse and neglect—all of those matters had escaped their attention to the extent that the facility had received full accreditation on each of the 44 areas of their responsibility.

This isn't just a one-off consideration. This is a detailed assessment that occurs once every three years and occurred in March 2016 and a clean bill of health was given to this facility. So, it managed to elude the aged-care accreditation agency and it managed to elude the Chief Psychiatrist. I understand there was a further follow-up visit later in the year. As all these events were playing out, I think around November, there was a further follow-up visit by the aged-care accreditation agency, I am advised, and that also didn't reveal these matters on that occasion.

Despite that, the minister was concerned enough to instigate this investigation. She kept us informed about that. We thought it was entirely appropriate that we await her return to cabinet with the outcome of that inquiry so that she could take the further steps. We knew that she was taking steps immediately to respond to the issue over the January period—new staff being brought in, new managers being brought in, training and assistance, and new night-time staff. So the matter was well in hand with the minister and cabinet awaited her return to the cabinet to advise us on what the next steps would be, which she did.

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