Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

Can I just ask about the proportionate allocation of responsibility based on the reasonable expectation that somebody would have known? There was also concern raised, even after the removal of criminal penalties through the civil penalty provisions contained in the act, that a responsible person, because of the broadness of the definition of 'responsible person', might be somebody who would not reasonably have had any oversight or knowledge of or any direction over an action. The definition of 'responsible person' went so far into the organisation. How on earth could—as in many of these decision-making instances—a voluntary director of a small board of a country nursing home possibly be held to account while, for some reason, we're saying that somebody who has all the resources in the world—somebody who is a minister or in a government—is actually legally exempt from this? Are the 'responsible person' provisions that are contained in this act sufficient to meet your own definition of 'risk proportionate' that you gave in relation to this particular provision?