Page 3702 - Week 08 - Friday, 24 August 2012
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1f. Six women with disabilities aged under 65 are living in residential aged care facilities.
1g. ACT Corrective Services advise that there are two women with disability in custody at the Alexander Maconochie Centre.
2. See above.
3. Disability ACT collects data on incidents involving individuals supported in its accommodation support services. For the year 2011-12, 47 incidents of verbal or physical abuse involving women either in their home or in the community, were recorded for the 58 women mentioned at 1a.
An incident is any event or circumstance from which could or did lead to unintended and/or unnecessary harm to a person and/or a compliant, loss or damage. Incidents are rated from one to five.
In all instances of alleged abuse, Disability ACT assesses and responds to incidents in accordance with its policies and procedures. Incidents are referred for independent investigation or to the Australian Federal Police, as required.
3a. Seven incidents resulted in an investigation with two cases referred to the Australian Federal Police.
3b. Disability ACT is not aware of any convictions.
4. The information sought is not in an easily retrievable form. To collect and assemble the information would be a major task, requiring a considerable diversion of resources. In this instance, I do not believe it would be appropriate to divert resources from the provision of direct services to clients, for the purposes of answering the Member’s question.
Women—sterilisation
(Question No 2268)
Ms Bresnan asked the Attorney-General, upon notice, on 2 May 2012:
(1) What is the incidence of forced sterilisation of women and girls with disabilities in the ACT, including the number of (a) applications sought for sterilisation and (b) procedures performed for the period 1997-2011 broken down year by year.
(2) Can the Attorney-General identify the current protocols and legal avenues dealing with the issue of sterilisation, including (a) processes to authorise sterilisation procedures and (b) processes and mechanisms used to determine that a person is incapable of giving informed consent and (c) processes used to collect data on the sterilisation of women and girls with disabilities in the ACT.
Mr Corbell: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:
(1) The Government is not aware of any ‘forced sterilisations’ of women or girls in the ACT.
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