Page 255 - Week 01 - Thursday, 29 November 2012
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This government is committed to delivering and funding good quality services for people with disability in the ACT. By moving the standards from a contract and policy matter to a legislative platform and by allowing for ministerial approval of disability service standards and the establishment of regulations, the protection of people with disability will be further enhanced. This is particularly relevant as we progress towards the commencement of the national disability insurance scheme.
This bill is necessary as it will amend the provision in the Official Visitor Act 2012 which states that the Minister for Disability, Children and Young People may make standards about services provided to people with a disability but commences on 1 March 2014, 15 months after the expected finalisation of the review of the national disability standards.
I will now outline the amendments this bill seeks to make. The section 11 amendment relating to disability service standards allows the Minister for Disability, Children and Young People to approve standards related to the provision of services for people with disability and the approval may apply, adopt or incorporate an instrument as in force from time to time.
The section 12 amendment relates to the regulation making power and states that the executive may make regulations for this act. A regulation may make provision in relation to standards in areas such as the need for entities to comply with the standards, performance measures for measuring compliance with the standards, the monitoring of compliance with the standards, the enforcement of compliance with the standards and the consequences of failing to comply with the standards.
The section 4 amendment sets out that the Minister for Disability, Children and Young People will not approve a grant unless the minister is satisfied that the relevant standards will be complied with. The Human Rights Commission Act 2005 will be amended to state in section 40(b)(va) that a person may complain to the commission if a service provider acts inconsistently with a standard approved in terms of the new section 11. I commend the bill to the Assembly.
Debate (on motion by Mr Hanson) adjourned to the next sitting.
Children and Young People Amendment Bill 2012 (No 2)
Ms Burch, pursuant to notice, presented the bill, its explanatory statement and a Human Rights Act compatibility statement.
Title read by Clerk.
MS BURCH (Brindabella—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Disability, Children and Young People, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Women, Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Minister for Racing and Gaming) (10.15): I move:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
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