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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-07-04 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Disability Housing

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:24): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Human Services regarding disability housing.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: There are about 1,400 highly skilled workers providing supported community accommodation services for some of the highest needs people living with a disability in our state. I pay tribute to those dedicated workers and the services they provide, many of whom are with us today in the gallery in this chamber. In early 2017, the then state Labor government announced the establishment of a public corporation to employ public sector workers and run supported community accommodation services, recognising the changes required through the implementation of the NDIS. The Liberal Party, the then Liberal opposition, in their pre-election 100-day plan stated there would be—and I will quote exactly:

A timetable provided for all State disability services to be transferred to the NGO sector, including group homes.

And that's the end of the quote from the 100-day plan. That's all that was said. There was no further information or detail on the public record from the Liberal Party about what they intended to do within this sector at all before the election. My questions to the minister are:

1. What consultation did the minister undertake with stakeholders, particularly workers, disability service providers and those people who rely on disability services, prior to making the decision to privatise these services?

2. Did the minister or any other members of the government, or anyone on their behalf, consult with Business SA about any form of this policy before the decision was taken?

3. What exactly is the timetable for all state disability services to be transferred out of the public sector, including group homes, as per the 100-day commitment?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:26): I thank the honourable member for his question. I, too, would like to pay tribute to the 1,400 people who are employed in the very important role of providing supported community accommodation services to people with disabilities throughout South Australia and recognise the very specialised role that they play.

The origin of the policy—I took responsibility for disabilities as the shadow minister for human services in January last year as part of the reshuffle and undertook a range of soundings on all of the areas within my portfolio responsibilities, attended forums, even crashed a government forum at one stage, which was to specifically address this issue, in March last year. The message that I received loudly and clearly from people across the sector, whether they were families of people with disabilities, advocates or people working within the system themselves, was that the timetable was not transparent for them.

So that is the origin of that particular commitment. I am slightly bemused that I am being asked why we are actually fulfilling an election commitment which was quite clearly made, as the honourable member is aware, and was articulated. It was a very broad consultation that took place for over a year with a range of stakeholders.

The second question was whether I consulted with Business SA. I met with Business SA, but I think that was probably in my role as shadow minister for environment and water, so that was prior to taking this particular portfolio area, so I have not spoken to them about this particular issue. There have been members of theirs who have raised issues, which was about an industrial matter, which I think was either a payroll tax or some issue, which was resolved last year, but I did not speak to Business SA in relation to this particular issue.

There was a timetable that was established through the work of the former government. As members would be aware, the transition from Domiciliary Care to the RDNS has been completed as of this financial year. So that one has taken place. There is a range of areas—the child and youth services I have spoken about in this place, which is to transfer to a mutual. That's due to take place on 1 September this year.

The assist adult therapy services, completion is expected by late 2018. We are currently working on the tender process for equipment services. In relation to the matter at hand, which is community services, it is fair to say that the government is seeking to gradually withdraw from providing services in this space, which is consistent with the NDIS, but there is going to be a very broad consultation process involved in this.

I appreciate that it's a very, very complex issue. There is a huge range of stakeholders. Of course, the most important matter is the people with disabilities themselves. We have the workers who we are very keen to see retained within the system. NDIS is expanding the workforce in this area and so we are working through those processes. There has been a round of discussion between my department and the workers and there will be many, many more discussions before we can resolve any of these issues.

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