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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-07-23 Daily Xml
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Disability Services

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (15:09): My question is to the Minister for Human Services regarding disability services. Is the minister aware of disability support workers being asked to sign non-disclosure agreements with the Department of Human Services and being directed not to talk about incidents because of recent media and parliamentary scrutiny? Are workers also being equally reminded of their obligation to report concerns about misconduct and of their whistleblower protections under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2018?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (15:09): I thank the honourable member for her question. I would like to reiterate what I said in previous sitting weeks in relation to the matter that was inappropriately and disgracefully brought into this chamber where somebody who was in the care of one of our services was named, under parliamentary privilege, by members of the Labor Party. It is one of the sadder and sorrier incidents that I have seen in my term as minister where somebody who was being cared for, where there had been circumstances that the department warranted investigation, but it had been deemed that police did not need to be involved and where the person in our care subsequently died.

I am deeply disturbed at the set of circumstances in which that has taken place and it is something for which I think the Labor Party deserves to apologise to a number of people in that scenario. My understanding and the advice that I have received is, particularly in relation to the actions of the member for Hurtle Vale, that people who she was talking to may not have understood who she was, that they may have been under the misapprehension that she was part of an official investigation. My knowledge from having spoken to family members is that—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: You are joking! You have to be joking!

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: I'm not joking, I'm not joking at all. Having spoken to the family members of the person who had been in our care, is that they had not wanted any media attention and that they were surprised—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. K.J. Maher: Try to answer the question.

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —that their loved one was named in the media, that her photograph was in the media—

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: I have spoken to the next of kin.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: Did you authorise these nondisclosure forms?

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Hunter!

The Hon. K.J. Maher: Did you authorise these gag orders now?

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter and the honourable Leader of the Opposition, please let the minister finish her answer.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: I have spoken to the next of kin and their advice to me was that they did not wish this matter to be in the media—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: Did you authorise the gag forms?

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —and unfortunately the photograph and the name of their loved family member—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —is on the public record forever as a result of the actions—

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The honourable Leader of the Opposition!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —of the member for Hurtle Vale.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Minister, sit down.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: No, the minister hasn't finished her answer but she is not going to continue while I can't hear the answer, okay? So the minister will continue and be heard in silence. The Leader of the Opposition and the Hon. Mr Hunter, you two in particular. The Hon. Ms Lensink.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: The member for Hurtle Vale is a nurse. She has been a registered nurse. She has worked in disability accommodation services. She knows how these things are. Her actions as a member of parliament, had she done what she had done—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. C.M. Scriven: Can you answer the question about the gag order?

The PRESIDENT: Order!

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: The actions of the member for Hurtle Vale, particularly given what the next of kin said to me, on two different occasions, considering the gross breach of this family's privacy, I think raises a lot of questions about the ethics of the Australian Labor Party and the things, the places they are prepared to go—

The Hon. C.M. Scriven: Are the staff told about whistleblower protections? That's the question.

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. C. Bonaros: We're trying to listen!

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —the places they are prepared to go in obtaining a 'gotcha' moment, in dragging whomever, wherever, whenever—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: Did you instruct your agency to implement a gag order, Michelle? Was that your idea?

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: Was that your idea?

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. K.J. Maher: Whose idea was it?

The PRESIDENT: Order! Minister.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —in the interests of getting a story in the media, in breach of the family's clear wishes. I am quite disturbed by the actions of the member for Hurtle Vale. Indeed, I suspect if she had done what she had done as a nurse practising and working for our accommodation services—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —she may well—

The Hon. C.M. Scriven interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Ms Scriven!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —have had questions to answer to APHRA, the Australian Prudential Health Regulation Authority.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Yes.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Minister, please continue and finish your answer.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: This matter has been under investigation. A number of staff have been spoken to in the context that if there are concerns within our accommodation services that they raise them with their management that they can go to, that they have a safe place to raise any concerns that they have, because we want to ensure that the privacy of our clients is respected.

I am sure that the people who are working in accommodation services would understand—particularly in the circumstances as we have seen with this very sorry episode in the behaviour of the Labor Party—that it's important to remind people that if they have concerns there are channels where they can go to a range of places, both within accommodation services and other places, to ensure that any concerns that they may have had about particular incidents are being followed up.

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