Page 2226 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 3 August 2022
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Many staff commented on the significant improvement in communications and staff morale since that last onsite organisational-wide accreditation assessment, referring to 2018. All clinical areas, and many clinical and non-clinical support areas, were visited. The report goes on to say:
Assessors noted the passion and enthusiasm in which staff approached the assessment process and the willingness to share their successes, particularly given the constraints and issues that COVID-19 has brought.
Like Mr Davis, I thank them, and I recognise that we need to do more. That is why we have also invested $7.2 million through this budget to triple the funding for the nurses and midwives safer culture strategy and provide further resources to address occupational violence in our health services. We are committed to working with staff and their unions to address each of the areas that is being asked for through this petition, and I look forward to responding formally.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Assisted reproductive technology—regulation and access
Ministerial statement
MS STEPHEN-SMITH (Kurrajong—Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Families and Community Services and Minister for Health) (10.28): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise today to table the ACT government response to the April 2021 ACT Legislative Assembly Resolution regarding regulation and access to assisted reproductive technology, or ART, in the ACT.
I would like to begin by thanking Dr Paterson for bringing this important and substantive motion to the Assembly. Dr Paterson’s passion and advocacy in this space will lead to substantial reform here and ensure that people who donate or receive gametes, deliver ART services, or are born as a result of these services, will have far greater confidence because of her work.
ART gives many people the chance to have children that they may not otherwise have had. ART is used for a range of different reasons to help a diversity of people achieve pregnancy.
Historically, ART has primarily been used as an infertility treatment in heterosexual relationships. However it is increasingly being used by people of a range of genders, sexualities and family structures. ART can also be used to help reduce the risk of a genetic disease or abnormality being inherited by a child. For many single people, and people in same-sex or gender diverse couples, ART may be their only option for becoming parents.
The government response tabled today outlines the next steps for the ACT government. We will work to develop a regulatory framework for ART in the ACT including: establishing a register for donor information in consultation with stakeholders; explore options for increasing affordability and accessibility of ART,
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