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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (5 September) . . Page.. 3179 ..

MS REILLY (continuing):

the owner of that nursing home or hostel wants to terminate the agreement, there are processes that have to be gone through. There has to be consideration of any grievances and there has to be consideration of why this tenure should be stopped. It is not a matter of stopping the tenure on a whim. There are agreed processes.

Further to that, there is also a recognised complaints process, and compliance with an open complaints process is part of the outcome standards for Commonwealth nursing homes and hostels. It means that residents and their relatives have some idea where to go if they wish to make a complaint, and there is a process for various stages of complaints and for dealing with grievances. If nursing homes and hostels do not stay with that complaints process, they can lose the right to remain open. In relation to Disability Services houses, no-one seems to know where to go if there are any complaints to be made. One of the excuses is, "We do not want to put up notices; it might not be homelike", but there are ways of ensuring that people are aware of their rights. Obviously, there is the Health Complaints Commissioner, whom some people who are resident in Disability Services houses have used, but it is not widely known that that recourse is open to those residents and their relatives if there are concerns about what happens within those houses. I think it is important that people know how and where they can go if they have complaints about the service and the quality of service they receive.

There is another aspect of the management of these houses about which I have concern. The workers in Disability Services houses are ACT Government employees but there appears to be a reluctance on the part of the employer to provide a safe workplace. There seems to be a reluctance on the part of the employer to provide the necessary equipment for the workers in those houses, to make sure that the residences, when they are set up, are safe places in which to work, and to ensure that they provide sufficient funds for those places to be safe workplaces. You have to ask who has the responsibility for the supply of essential equipment such as gloves, aprons, overshoes and disinfectant, because these are essential in these types of houses. You cannot use the excuse that these are people's homes and, consequently, they would not need them. It is the responsibility of the employer to supply such equipment because that ensures that the employee is able to work in a safe place. It is a recognition of the needs of the people within those houses. It is not saying that they are not providing the same sorts of things as any other community house; it is recognising that these people have needs that require the use of such equipment, in the same way as people need lifters and other sorts of equipment. It is accepted that aids to assist mobility are provided, but the everyday disposable items and consumables are said to be the responsibility of the residents. In other words, they can buy them out of their dinner money.

One wonders who is responsible if one of the workers in a Disability Services house has an infection that they got at work. Would they be eligible for workers compensation and sick leave, or would it just be seen as somebody getting sick at work and it does not matter? Consider the situation where, say, an aged person or a person with a disability living in a private residence - maybe a residence they own themselves - employs someone to come in and take care of them. One would expect that employer, the owner of the house, the person requiring the assistance, to buy equipment. I cannot see the difference when the employer is the ACT Government, which does not feel any obligation to provide the essential equipment and consumable items necessary to allow staff to fulfil their duties.

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