Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Disability and Carers (House)) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That all the words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:

(1) notes the recommendation of the Senate Community Affairs Committee in November 2015 that there be a royal commission established following its inquiry into violence, abuse and neglect of people with disability in institutional care, and the calls for such a royal commission from the disability sector;

(2) notes that children with disability are three times more likely to experience abuse than children who do not have disability and that 90 per cent of women with intellectual disability have been sexually abused; and

(3) condemns this conservative government’s continued refusal to establish a royal commission to bring about justice for Australians with disability".

The Crimes Amendment (National Disability Insurance Scheme—Worker Screening) Bill facilitates access to criminal history data held by the Commonwealth for the purposes of conducting an NDIS worker screening check clearance. It's a bill that Labor welcomes and supports. The change proposed in this bill enacts part of the Council of Australian Governments' decision of December 2016 to implement a new quality and safeguards framework for the NDIS, which includes a commitment to work with the states and territories to deliver nationally consistent worker screening for the NDIS. Labor of course supported the establishment of the new quality and safeguards framework in the parliament last year.

The aim of the NDIS worker screening policy is to protect people with disability from harm and abuse. This bill will permit criminal history information to be disclosed and taken into account in assessing whether a person who works or seeks to work with a person with disability poses a risk to such a person. The Commonwealth Crimes Act 1914 states that people who have been convicted of a crime and subsequently pardoned, had their conviction quashed or their conviction spent, are not required to disclose their criminal history. Currently a small number of exceptions to this rule exist—for example, for those applying for a working-with-children check or applying for employment with a law enforcement agency or an intelligence or security agency. This bill amends the Crimes Act to extend this exception to people who work or seek to work with people with disability to require them to disclose criminal history. It's a sensible reform that will go some way to improving the safety of some of the most vulnerable members of our community: people with disability.

As the National Disability Insurance Scheme continues to roll out across Australia in the coming years, the number of disability service providers will increase. Indeed the latest quarterly report on the NDIS shows that the number of approved service providers increased by 17 per cent between September 2017 and December 2017. The report showed that in New South Wales alone, where the rollout of the scheme is most advanced, there are now more than 6,000 registered service providers. As we continue to see this growth in the scheme, we need to make sure that the people taking the new jobs that are part of the NDIS are properly screened. It's anticipated that the NDIS worker screening check will become available in New South Wales and South Australia from July 2018, in Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory from July 2019 and in Western Australia from July 2020.

The NDIS worker screening policy is being developed in consultation with the states and territories, taking into account the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It's envisaged that worker screening units will be established in each state and territory in order to undertake employment screening in relation to work with a person with disability. The term 'work' is defined broadly to include those working directly with people with disability in a paid or voluntary capacity as well as leadership roles of institutions or, for example, people holding roles on boards or committees. The information may only be disclosed for the purposes of undertaking the NDIS worker screening check. The bill also requires that the minister undertake two reviews of the changes to be completed no later than 31 December 2019 and 31 December 2022 respectively and to report on the effectiveness of the scheme to parliament. The responsibility for the overall design and broad policy of NDIS worker screening will be held by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, which will commence operation on 1 July this year.

I want to go to the broader questions about the abuse of people with disability. Last week in the media we saw details of the tragic death of Sarah Hammoud. Sarah was 22. She died in hospital in March 2016 from septicaemia about two months after a visit to her care home had raised alarm bells. Sarah had lived in care since the age of 13. She could not communicate, having been born with severe intellectual disability caused by having three X chromosomes instead of two. According to evidence given to a coronial inquest, Sarah was, 'half dragged and half carried from a taxi in a shocking incident witnessed by community workers.' The evidence was that, 'when Sarah got to where she lived, her elbows were very discoloured and one was very swollen'. Just months later, Sarah was dead.

Sarah's tragic case, sadly, is not unique. These shocking and harrowing cases of violence and abuse are far too often experienced by people with disability, and they just cannot be ignored. We know that people with disability experience much higher rates of violence than the rest of the community, and in many cases this violence occurs in places where they're meant to be receiving support. We know that children with disability are at least three times more likely than other children to experience abuse. We know that 90 per cent of women with an intellectual disability have been sexually abused.

This parliament cannot let this abuse be swept under the carpet. A royal commission is needed so that people with disability, their families and carers can tell their stories to the highest level of judicial inquiry and seek justice. Only a royal commission has the weight, authority and investigative powers to examine these horrific accounts of violence and abuse against people with disability. We have seen how effective the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has been over the last five years, how important it's been particularly for survivors who, for many years, weren't believed and how important its recommendations are. So now we need a royal commission into violence and abuse against people with disability so that we can bring about systemic change to make sure that this horrific abuse doesn't happen again. That's why, in May last year, we announced that a Shorten Labor government would establish a royal commission into violence and abuse against people with disability. The disability sector continues to call on the Turnbull government to establish a royal commission into violence and abuse of people with disability. I must say, I think we would all be pleased on this side of the House if the Turnbull government would begin the work to establish a royal commission as soon as possible.

As I said at the start, Labor supports this bill because we support action to protect people with disability from abuse, violence and neglect, and facilitating access to criminal history data held by the Commonwealth for the purposes of conducting an NDIS worker screening check is an important safeguard in protecting people with disability. A nationally consistent worker screening check will make it more difficult for people with poor records in one jurisdiction to move to another, continuing to place people with disability at risk of harm. This is appropriate, because we do know that people with disability are at greater risk of abuse than others in our community. That said, it is nevertheless very, very important—and I call on the government again—to establish a royal commission into violence and abuse against people with disability. It is the right thing to do, and a royal commission should be established as soon as possible.

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the amendment seconded?

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the amendment and reserve my right to speak.

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The original question was that this bill be now read a second time. To this the honourable member for Jagajaga has moved as an amendment that all words after ‘That’ be omitted with a view to substituting other words. If it suits the House, I will state the question in the form that the amendment be agreed to. The question now is that the amendment be agreed to.

Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I note that this legislation, the Crimes Amendment (National Disability Insurance Scheme—Worker Screening) Bill 2018 has been a long time coming. People with a disability are some of the most vulnerable in our communities. They have been, and sadly will continue to be, exploited. We must not negate our duty of care to those who are vulnerable in our communities. Let's be very clear. Labor has supported and will continue to support a quality and safeguards commission for the NDIS. We must absolutely ensure we do everything that is possible to protect all our citizens, especially those who are marginalised by disability. The worker screening clearance is well overdue.

We know this government is bungling the rollout of the NDIS every single day. You only need to go into any of our local federal MPs' offices and ask to see their list of constituents who have had issues. My office is fielding about three complaints a day. I accept, though, that a massive social reform like this won't happen overnight and there will be many, many creases that need to be ironed out. But how can you legitimately claim to care when the government neglected this advice that was given to them in 2016, only to implement it and make it mandatory from 2018?

Screening workers for suitability against their criminal history when working with vulnerable groups should be a standard practice in a civilised society—that's if we are to learn anything at all from the royal commission that Labor fought so hard to establish. We fought hard to establish it under the Gillard government because we knew there were people who were preyed on. We listened to their stories and we actually acted. If we are to learn anything from that royal commission and not repeat the mistakes into the future, criminal checks for those people who are working with vulnerable groups is a common-sense approach to ensuring that we do something to prevent this from occurring ever again.

This is why Labor has supported industry, stakeholders and carers who have called for a royal commission into abuse against people with a disability. Frankly, I wish it wasn't something that we had to do. Clearly, though, it will be until this government gets serious about protecting all Australians, not just protecting its own shady behaviour. Sadly, though, transparency and owning up to injustice isn't something this government is really keen on or good at, even though their minister said: 'Recent inquiries and reports make it clear that far too many people with a disability have experienced abuse.' If the Prime Minister's minister can admit to that then where is the care, where is the compassion and where is the justice for these people? Simply put, it doesn't exist under this government. Someone who had a hand in bringing the NDIS to life, the Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, knows what it takes.

Shame on the Prime Minister for being too busy launching royal commissions and personal vendettas against Bill Shorten—who actually did come in here and stand up for people. The government are too busy launching a royal commission into allowing unions to stick up for workers' wages and conditions and they are too busy sending the AFP in to raid union offices and collect a piece of paper that was already on the public record. It is an outrage that they deny people with a disability the option to have a royal commission into injustices that have already occurred. The government are too distracted about their own inadequate performance and would rather deal in this low-rent, tit-for-tat schoolyard garbage than tackle some of the things that are wrong in our community and are hurting vulnerable people right now. It would be incredibly painful for families who receive services through the NDIS to know that these criminal history checks are not in place, that worker screening has not been mandated in the rollout and that there would be people who have been exposed to risk because of this abject failure. It is a basic duty of care.

Labor have gone further in our support for people with disability than this say everything, do nothing Prime Minister ever will. If he was serious about protecting the rights of people with a disability, he would take action to prevent injustices and correct injustices done in the past. Let's do the numbers. And, no, Prime Minister, these aren't the numbers on whose support you have—which, concerningly, are the only numbers he is concerned about. I will give you a few numbers to get obsessed about. I hope these ones keep you up late at night just as much as the other numbers do. Ninety-two per cent of women with an intellectual disability have been sexually assaulted in their lives. Sixty per cent of those assaults occurred before the girl's 18th birthday. Children who have a disability are three times more likely to experience abuse than children their same age without a disability.

Has no-one in this government ventured into the real world lately? You only need to talk to the parents of children who have a disability to understand the anxieties and the fears they have about the abuse of their special needs kids—to the point where some parents have such little faith in the system that they deny their children services because they cannot be assured that their special needs child will not be preyed upon and they don't let them out of their sight. This has a terrible impact on that parent and carer's health and their wellbeing. It also has an impact on that child who misses out on services out of fear.

It would be a great shame if one day, just one day, the bloke who is supposedly in charge of running this country came in here and stuck up for the vulnerable instead of his rich, big business mates, offering them a $65 billion tax cut that he tells us every day we can afford and then uses the NDIS as a battering ram! It would be so refreshing if one day he rolled out of bed in Point Piper and said, 'Today I'll use my position—

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I remind the member to keep her remarks relevant to the bill at hand.

Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm not sure how 'If he rolled out of bed and used his position of privilege and power to help a group of vulnerable Australians and not just roll out for a photo shoot of vulnerable people, like he did on Christmas Day' is off the topic, Mr Deputy Speaker. They're still vulnerable people. This wilful ignorance perpetuates the pain and suffering of already vulnerable people. You need no further proof that this Prime Minister ignores all the evidence than his rejection of the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into abuse in disability services, which recommended that the state lobby for a royal commission into this matter. You also need look no further than his ignoring of the Senate Community Affairs Committee recommendation that a royal commission be established following on from its inquiry into violence, abuse and neglect against people with a disability in institutional care. The government did not provide a response on this matter until 16 months after it had been tabled, and they rejected it, even though the minister admitted that there were reports of instances abuse. Yes, Mr Deputy Speaker, I would really like the Prime Minister to roll out of his bed, come in here and use his position of power and privilege to stick up for these people.

We say it all the time: the Prime Minister and the government are out of touch and they're out of ideas. We are happy to work with them on this in the interests of protecting vulnerable people. This legislation deals with workers in the future, and it has taken almost two years to implement. It is so inadequate, yet this Prime Minister thinks it'll do. What about the people who have been wronged in the past? Why do they get ignored? Where is their justice? When you know better, you do better. This is one step towards doing better in the future. It won't be enough, it will never, ever be enough, but it is something.

I want to do one thing while I'm here on my feet today. I want to thank all those people who are working in disability services, supporting vulnerable people, and who are doing the right thing, because I'm sure there are more of them that do than don't. There are more people doing the right thing, and we need to ensure that, if they witness something, if they have concerns, if they hear something, they are protected in saying something. Bad things happen when good people do nothing. We must ensure that good people are protected in workplaces and that their representation by unions—who have always looked after workers' rights, including people who speak up and act as whistleblowers—is maintained. Instead of the government's dog whistling, let's listen to those from the trade union movement and those with the gumption to stand up and speak out against injustice wherever it occurs. Unlike those opposite, we don't throw those people under a bus. We need to encourage confidence in the people with a disability and the workers in that sector who protect them to speak out.

Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When people with complex and serious disabilities come to see me at my mobile office or at my Windsor office, it's often easy to see the warm relationship that exists between them and their carer. I'm also regularly reminded of the trust that's put in the carer's hands. Whether the person is in a wheelchair, whether they have an ongoing mental health condition or whether they have an intellectual disability, it is clear that the character of the carer is vital. But it's also, sadly, not unusual or unheard of to have a family whose experience has been difficult and challenging in finding carers whom they can trust to deliver the level of care that they or their loved one deserves. But the tools to be able to ensure that individuals are the sort of person who should be given responsibility of caring for a person with a disability simply haven't been there.

I support this bill, the Crimes Amendment (National Disability Insurance Scheme—Worker Screening) Bill 2018, which makes it possible for criminal history data held by the Commonwealth to be accessed for the purposes of conducting an NDIS worker screening check and clearance. The Crimes Act prevents disclosure of spent, pardoned or quashed convictions, except in limited circumstances. While exceptions already exist, they haven't applied to the disability sector. I always thought it was strange that there was an exemption in the Crimes Act for checks on people who were working with children or applying for a job, even as a consultant, or with a law enforcement agency or an intelligence agency. When you were working for someone with a disability, it didn't qualify.

History has shown us—in fact, I think the ABC's 7.30 revealed some of the dreadful details late last year—that people with a disability experience higher rates of violence against them than the rest of the community, often at the hands of the people who are supposed to be caring for them. So I was pleased to see it was agreed at a COAG meeting in December 2016 to deliver a nationally consistent worker screening program. This bill certainly extends the exception to the rule so information held by the Commonwealth about a person's criminal history can be taken into account when deciding whether it's appropriate for someone to work closely with a person who has a disability. A nationally consistent worker screening check is going to make it more difficult for people with poor records in one state or territory to move to another and to continue to put people with a disability at risk of harm. It's appropriate that the state and territory based worker screening units get that full history. We are certainly satisfied with the safeguards in this bill to protect rights to privacy by ensuring the information can only be disclosed for the purposes of undertaking the NDIS worker screening check and will be overseen by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commissioner from 1 July this year.

We welcome these changes because we are serious about the safety and wellbeing of Australians who have a disability. They and their families deserve peace of mind about the people caring for them. But, of course, these changes only apply to people covered by the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The protections for people with disabilities in a whole range of other environments outside the NDIS remain a problem. For example, the ABC's 7.30 program showed there had been more than 200 allegations of abuse against children with a disability in New South Wales schools alone in the previous two years. I know, and I hope, that these instances are the exception rather than the rule.

My mum was a teacher in a school for profoundly disabled students in Sydney's western suburbs for many, many years. I saw firsthand the wonderful care and the quality environment that those children had. It was a place full of music and laughter. Sadly, the ABC report tells us that that isn't the experience for every student with a disability. That's one of the reasons I'm disappointed that this legislation doesn't establish a royal commission into violence and abuse against people with a disability. According to Disabled People's Organisation Australia, 92 per cent of women with an intellectual disability have been sexually assaulted at some time in their life. Sixty per cent of those assaults have occurred before they turn 18. Children with a disability are at least three times more likely to experience abuse than other children. Those statistics are chilling.

The individual stories are harrowing. I have had distressed medical professionals walk me through the process that they've been forced to take to try and get police to take action to investigate allegations of sexual assault of people with disabilities, and I've spoken to those same police to try and get action taken. The Prime Minister says investigating assaults is a state issue. But it is clear to me that the reasons and circumstances of assaults and violence against people with disabilities go beyond state boundaries. I'm not alone in believing that this is an important issue. Only last year, 163 community groups and 380 individuals got together calling for a commission to investigate these types of assaults and neglect. We're talking about people like St Vincent de Paul, Anglicare, Amnesty and the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples—organisations that really understand what is happening in our communities and are privy to some of the dreadful stories.

Carolyn Frohmader, from Disabled People's Organisation Australia, said that, as an advocate for more than 20 years, she had heard repeated, horrific stories across all settings. She described it as an issue of critical, urgent national significance. She said assaults were at epidemic proportions and a royal commission was needed to unify a mishmash of regulatory bodies in the states and territories. It is awful that she thinks things are getting worse, not better.

If the Prime Minister was really serious about protecting the rights of all Australians with disability, he would not only take the action this bill does to prevent these sorts of things but take action to prevent harm being done in the future and he would correct the injustices of the past. Only a royal commission can do that. That is why, last year, we announced that a Shorten Labor government would establish a royal commission into violence and abuse against people with disabilities.

I note that, in 2006, a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into abuse in disability services recommended that the state lobby for this sort of royal commission. In 2005—we're going back three years—the Senate Community Affairs References Committee recommended that a royal commission be established following their inquiry into violence, abuse and neglect against people with disability in institutional care. The government didn't respond to that recommendation until 16 months after the report was released. What was their response? It was to reject a royal commission.

I wish I could share the view the Prime Minister has that the quality and safeguarding framework will be enough to protect people with disability, but all the evidence tells us that it won't be and that we need to have out in the open what the dangers are and what the experiences are so that we can come up with ways to prevent them in the future. It is actually cruel not to take action and to ignore the crimes committed against people with disability in the past. It is unforgivable not to be finding ways to prevent these things occurring in the future. The voices of people who have been abused must be heard. If the Prime Minister were serious about protecting people with a disability, he would join with Labor and commit to a royal commission.

David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The National Disability Insurance Scheme is one of the largest social and economic policy reforms in Australia's history. At full scheme, it is estimated that the NDIS will be supporting around 460,000 Australians with a disability. The NDIS is a transformational social policy which is being delivered by this government. This will require a new, nationally consistent approach to quality and safe guards. In December 2016 the Council of Australian Governments endorsed the NDIS quality and safeguarding framework, setting out a new approach to regulation for NDIS to protect NDIS participants. The framework was developed in consultation with a range of key stakeholders, including people with disability, their families, carers, providers and peak bodies.

Nationally consistent NDIS worker screening is an important element of this framework that will minimise the risk of harm to people with disability from the people who work closely with them. It will reduce the potential for providers to employ workers who pose a high risk of harm to people with a disability and deter individuals who pose an unacceptable risk of harm from seeking work in the sector. Worker clearances will be portable across jurisdictions and employers, reducing duplication and complexity for workers and providers living or operating in multiple states and territories. Workers who hold an NDIS worker screening check clearance will be subject to ongoing monitoring at a national level for relevant criminal history or commission records.

A national NDIS worker screening check is a major step forward from the variable arrangements operating in each state and territory. This bill is an important step towards nationally consistent NDIS worker screening, which will help to protect people with disability from experiencing harm. This bill creates exceptions to the provisions that prevent disclosure of spent, quashed or pardoned convictions for persons who work or seek to work with people with disability in the NDIS. Reports of abuse and neglect perpetrated against people with disability may not be pursued for a variety of reasons. The difficulties experienced in securing a conviction where the victim is a person with disability and the challenges faced by people with disability who are victims of crime are now well documented. For these reasons, Commonwealth, state and territory governments have agreed that it is appropriate to consider a person's full criminal history, including spent, quashed and pardoned conviction information, to assess the risk they may pose in working with a person with a disability in the NDIS. This bill will allow relevant Commonwealth criminal history records information about workers to be shared with state and territory worker screening units so they can make a more accurate and informed assessment of the risk that a person may pose to people with disability in the NDIS. This bill has been informed by arrangements already in place for working-with-children checks and the recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

This bill ensures the right balance is struck between safeguarding the rights of people with disability and the rights of individual workers to privacy and employment. The exchange of information permitted by this bill is subject to the same stringent safeguards in place for working-with-children checks. Information will only be disclosed to prescribed worker-screening units for the purposes of worker screening. The bill requires the Attorney-General to be satisfied that certain criteria are met before a person or body can be prescribed. A person or body will not be able to be prescribed unless the Attorney-General is satisfied that the screening unit has the legislative basis for doing so and complies with applicable privacy, human rights and record management legislation. The person or body must also comply with principles of natural justice and must have risk assessment frameworks and appropriately skilled staff to assess risks to the safety of a person with a disability. The bill also contains staged reviews of its operation. The department will also conduct a privacy impact assessment of the measures proposed in the bill. These are important safeguards against the misuse of criminal history information.

The paramount consideration must be the right of people with disability to live lives free from abuse, violence, neglect and exploitation. The provisions in the bill are a reasonable and necessary measure to ensure people with disability have access to quality and safe supports and services under the NDIS. The NDIS worker-screening check will not replace the responsibility of employers to recruit suitable employees and provide a safe environment for people with disability, but it does represent a very significant reform designed to strengthen the national standards to address abuse and neglect for the most vulnerable in our society.

We will continue to consult the stakeholders to establish nationally consistent expectations for the conduct of providers, the training and screening of their workers and the quality of supports and services that they deliver under the NDIS. I extend the government's thanks for the commitment and contributions made by so many people across the community as we work together to implement quality and safeguard arrangements, including this bill, that support the right of people with disability to access safe services and supports in pursuit of their goals and the effective implementation of NDIS. I commend this bill to the House.

Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The original question was this bill now be read a second time. To this the honourable member for Jagajaga has moved as an amendment that all words after 'that' be omitted with a view to substituting other words. The immediate question is that the amendment be agreed to.

Question negatived.

Original question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.