Page 126 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 9 February 2022
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and Disaster Relief Australia, whose volunteers include many Defence Force veterans, who managed deliveries for a significant period during the 2021 lockdown. The success of CRN was also made possible through the generous support of Woolworths, as our grocery partner, to help us keep running costs low.
In November 2021 CRN was announced the winner for the ACT in the government award category at the Resilient Australia Awards, and the ACT government’s Community Resilience and Crisis Response Team was highly commended. CRN was also a finalist at the National Resilient Australia Awards.
In addition to this support, ESA have been helping the ACT government with the packing and distribution of rapid antigen tests to in-home disability support and aged-care workers. These workers are not covered by commonwealth offers to supply tests and have had great difficulty finding a reliable supply of RATs in the private market. Our approach in not just covering the cost of tests but supplying the tests directly to service providers has been with the aim of care providers being able to focus on what they do best, rather than having to spend time and money finding scarce public health resources that keep their workers and clients safe.
The ACT government and ESA have already distributed more than 12,000 RATs to disability support and aged-care providers, including self-managed NDIS participants. Importantly, the cost of these RATs provided by the ACT government is not coming out of the NDIS plans of individual people with disability.
Testing for an infectious disease is a basic primary healthcare need, and reducing the risk of transmission to people with disability and older people at greatest risk of complications from COVID is a public health good. With ESA’s help, we have been able to meet these needs faster and more effectively than if we had relied on each provider competing on the private market for these resources. I acknowledge the invaluable assistance of the ESA in meeting crucial community needs. As Minister for Disability and as minister responsible for seniors and for CRN, I say thank you.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Senior Practitioner Act—update
Ministerial statement
MS DAVIDSON (Murrumbidgee—Assistant Minister for Seniors, Veterans, Families and Community Services, Minister for Disability, Minister for Justice Health and Minister for Mental Health) (10.13): Today I table the update on the implementation of the Senior Practitioner Act 2018. Last year I sought an administrative amendment to delay the review of the act until after its fifth year of operation. When this amendment was approved, I committed to providing the Legislative Assembly with an interim update in February 2022. The act commenced on 1 September 2018 and created the new role of Senior Practitioner, as well as providing a formal framework for the reduction and elimination of restrictive practices.
This legislative framework in the ACT is unique in that it provides oversight of restrictive practices not only for those in receipt of disability services, including
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