Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Corporate Governance and Responsibility) Share this | Hansard source

Can I indicate Labor’s position in relation to this amendment and, in doing so, make a suggestion or a request to Senator Siewert about the order in which these amendments are moved. As I indicated in my speech on the second reading, Labor do not in principle support the contestability of vocational rehabilitation services. We believe there may well be some benefits to consumers from that. The issue is what will work, and we are very mindful of the position that has been put to us by a range of welfare and disability advocacy organisations. We are also mindful of the comments by Mr Mendoza, which I alluded to in the second reading debate, about the problems that the Mental Health Council of Australia sees are confronting people who suffer mental illness. They do not believe that they are adequately safeguarded against in this legislation.

I indicate to Senator Siewert that we have some difficulty in supporting this particular amendment, particularly because there are some measures in the subsection she seeks to remove which are in fact protective. For example, under item 4—the new subsection 19.2(a) and (b)—there are requirements around certificates of compliance for provision of rehabilitation programs. That is a useful and important thing to have in legislation. Labor are minded to support the sunset provision which was proposed in subsections (2) and (3). These are the provisions which deal with the waiver of the requirement to hold a certificate of compliance. I doubt that Senator Abetz is going to indicate on behalf of the government that these amendments are supported—