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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-10-27 Daily Xml
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Disability Services

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (14:36): My question is to the Minister for Human Services regarding disabilities. Can the minister please inform the council of the new disability study commissioned by the Marshall Liberal government to address parents' common fear about what happens to their child with a disability when they can no longer care for them?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:36): I thank the honourable member for her question and for her interest in this important area. Indeed, as she is aware, this government has commissioned some work to be done to assist people who are in that situation, particularly older parents who have concerns about what will happen to their loved one with disabilities when they are no longer able to care for them. This is an area which obviously has been brought into sharp relief by the terrible death last year of Ann Marie Smith, which shocked everyone.

This is an issue that has been quite a common thread for a number of parents of children with disabilities over many years. There have been various forms of models to assist people into the future, such as Circles of Support, which is something that people can arrange informally. In addition to that, the Community Living Project has been working on a framework that can be replicable to people in those situations.

Also, I note that I think it was the South Australian Law Reform Institute report into advance care directives—

The Hon. S.G. Wade: No, advance care directives was an independent review by Wendy Lacey.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Sorry, SALRI has done some work in this space, in which one of their chapters actually referred to something known as microboards, which is a similar model to Circles of Support. What the microboard concept is is that a range of people can be appointed, much like the parents putting together a will, and that group of people would be tasked with providing for that person's needs when they are no longer able to.

The report is being undertaken by Dr David Caudrey, who is our independent Disability Advocate. He, of course, has a lot of experience over many decades in this space through his existing work on behalf of the South Australian government. He has had a specific role in many disability areas, including the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and advises us on systemic issues that we can continue to advocate through that.

He, of course, was one of the co-chairs last year, with Ms Kelly Vincent, of our safeguarding committee, so he is more than happy to meet with anybody or receive feedback from people who have feedback on these matters. The aim is that he will report to me by 15 December. There may well be some legislative changes that we can make into the future that will assist people, but we do acknowledge that this is an area of great concern to many families of people with disabilities, and we look forward to improving the policy space into the future.

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