Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the crossbench and the major parties for working with disability organisations and the Greens to progress these amendments. It is right to say that, when the bill in its original form was presented to the community, there were concerns about the potential impacts on victims and the creation of a three-tiered royal commission process. These amendments effectively address those concerns. I would also like to put on the record our acknowledgement that there will be a large amount of work for this royal commission to do in terms of hearing the stories of survivors and organisations. If we take the institutional responses royal commission as a template, over the period of its life, that royal commission heard from 8,100 individuals. It is not unreasonable to suggest that this royal commission will hear from far more folks coming forward with their stories. So there may well be a capacity challenge for the commission going forward. I would encourage the government to engage with disabled people should such a challenge occur and to keep itself open to the idea of the appointment of additional commissioners to the process in order to bring additional expertise into the commission and ensure that it can be completed within a reasonable time frame. Having said that, we commend these amendments.