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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-07-23 Daily Xml
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Safeguarding and Worker Screening

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:28): 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: Even before the minister received the interim report of the disability task force, written advice was provided to the minister that:

There are clear gaps in the information exchange with the Quality Safeguards Commission that must be addressed urgently.

The written advice to the minister went on to outline four options that the state government may advocate for, all of which involved the NDIA and the commonwealth taking action, but to do nothing for the state government.

My questions to the minister are: exactly what does the minister understand by the terms 'clear gaps in the information exchange' and 'must be addressed urgently', and how is it possible, minister, that your agency can only suggest potential things to ask others to do and not take concrete action themselves?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:29): I thank the honourable member for his question. I'm assuming that what he is referring to is that the Quality and Safeguards Commission receives complaints about quality, potential abuse and those matters, and that the concerns that they receive when they are working through those processes, the collecting of evidence, if they have formed concerns about particular workers they would inform the DHS screening unit. The line of questioning in his first set of questions goes to those matters and, as he well knows, that is something that the state of South Australia has been advocating with the Quality and Safeguards Commission and which I'm pleased has reached a resolution.

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