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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-09-10 Daily Xml
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Disability Services

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:48): My questions are to the Minister for Human Services regarding disability and the alleged rape of a woman with intellectual disability. Firstly, was the person who is accused of raping a woman with intellectual disability subject to any complaints or concerns during their DHS employment prior to their arrest; and, secondly, has the minister ensured that the alleged offender did not fail the advanced psychological testing that is applied to residential child protection workers before being employed in disability care?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (15:49): Can I just check in relation to the second question that the member was talking about the residential child protection test.

The Hon. J.E. Hanson: Correct.

The PRESIDENT: Yes. Minister.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: If I take that one first, in relation to those psychological screenings, I think that my suspicion would be—and I would need to go and double-check—that the individual would not have applied for that particular test unless he had been working in a residential care setting. It is quite a specific test. It doesn't apply to all child protection workers. It only applies to those child protection workers who are working in residential settings.

The test, from what I understand, is a bit of a yes/no answer, in that the test is to determine whether somebody is suitable or not. The response that comes back from that particular test to the child protection department is a yes/no answer, but it does not just relate to somebody's potential psychological dysfunction in relation to safety for those residents. It also encompasses issues that relate to whether someone who sought to work in child protection may be retraumatized, because it is a very challenging environment.

That is an important element, I think, when referring to those particular tests. We do see that often people who have lived experience want to seek people who are in a situation similar to themselves and therefore they will go for that particular type of work. That is noble. Those people, if they seek to work in residential settings, will undergo that test and that may determine that they would be unsuitable because there would be psychological harm to themselves.

In relation to the first question, I need to advise that matters that relate to any details that the department has that are germane to the court case I am not able to comment on.

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