Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, that is correct. I move Greens amendment (2) on sheet 5193:

(2)    Schedule 1, item 4, page 4 (after line 11), after subsection 19(3), add:

        (4)    The arrangements provided for in subsections (2) and (3) cease to operate on 30 June 2008.

This is putting in a sunset clause so that provisions for the certification period are specifically just for a 12-month window. The intention is that, if the bill goes through and the act is amended, the department secretary can enter into arrangements with uncertified private rehabilitation services for a period of 12 months.

We believe this is a clear and unambiguous sunset provision that ensures the secretary can only enter into arrangements with private service providers during the first 12 months of the operation of the new provisions. While the government has said that the intention is that there be only a 12-month period during which new service providers can apply for certification of compliance, this is not how this section reads. The bill as it stands allows the secretary to enter into arrangements with an uncertified service provider at any time, provided the secretary is convinced that within 12 months of that time the provider might be able to achieve certification.

It is one thing to allow for a period of grace for rehabilitation services to obtain certification at the introduction of the bill; it is quite another, we believe, that this be an ongoing arrangement. We need to ensure that there are high standards among rehabilitation service providers, and we do not want to create a situation where this lack of certification is an ongoing issue. We believe this could be an incentive for providers that have cut-rate services to not achieve compliance. Having an ongoing provision such as this for 12-month certification does not encourage service providers who are genuinely interested in maintaining ongoing provision of services to maintain a long-term involvement in the market, as it were. We believe that it is more appropriate that, if the overall amendment gets up, all rehabilitation services be given 12 months in which to become compliant and that there then be a sunset clause.

We believe that 12 months is adequate warning to service providers that they will need to become compliant. The 12-month window provides an incentive to ensure that they undertake becoming compliant straightaway. They have 12 months in which to do that. We believe that is ample time to achieve that certification. After that time, if service providers want to become involved in providing rehabilitation services to people required to have rehabilitation services, they will have adequate time to decide if they want to become compliant and to do so. We believe this is an important amendment to ensure adequate standards are met in the provision of rehabilitation to clients.