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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) (14:44): A supplementary to the Premier: which minister is responsible for the cultural failure that the Premier referred to in his previous answer?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:44): The Minister for Mental Health has accepted full responsibility for this by the way in which she has accounted for the matter. First, she uncovered the—

Ms Chapman: She uncovered it?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Absolutely. Before—

The SPEAKER: The Premier will be seated. The deputy leader has continued to interject even after a second warning. I remove her from the house for an hour under the sessional order.

The honourable member for Bragg having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: If I have leave to continue my remarks, sir?

The SPEAKER: Yes.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Before a word was uttered in this house and before any public attention was drawn to this issue, the Minister for Mental Health commissioned this inquiry. And not just a small inquiry, not just an inquiry into the presenting incident or incidents, but a comprehensive inquiry.

An honourable member: It should never have got to that stage.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: It is true and disturbing that it took the community visitor to have to escalate his concerns to the minister for that inquiry to occur, and that is a failing; there is no doubt about that. But when the minister became aware of that, she instituted the forensic inquiry, which revealed the extent of the difficulties that even the Chief Psychiatrist himself, when he was in the facility for 2½ hours in the months before discussions occurred with him about this broader review, were not revealed to him.

Let's be clear about this. In discussions that the minister and I have since had with a number of the families, they were at pains to suggest to us that their criticisms were not of the whole facility; indeed, they were incredibly grateful for the care and excellent work that was done by a very significant number of staff at this facility. So, while there are very troubling issues that have been revealed through this report, it is not a universal condemnation of everybody who worked at this facility. They wanted us to know that and they wanted us to make that clear because they felt badly for those staff who had been tarred with the same brush as those who had been doing the wrong thing.

There is no doubt that this minister acted appropriately, got to the bottom of the concerns here and has taken assertive steps to respond to the recommendations of this report. That is the essence of responsibility—by taking responsibility, by being open and honest about the nature and extent of the problem, by owning responsibility for the solutions and by taking steps to implement those solutions.

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