Page 3488 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 17 September 2019
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In 2017 the Justice and Community Safety Directorate conducted a review of the scheme which involved consultation with the official visitors, operational directorates and a range of community stakeholders. The review confirmed that the official visitor scheme is a valuable scheme and that official visitors are highly trusted by both clients and service providers. The review identified a number of opportunities to improve the operation of the scheme, particularly in increasing consistency in the way that official visitors work in different areas, the reports they make and the level of support that we provide to them.
I should briefly comment on some of the improvements being made through this bill. The bill amends the Official Visitor Act to clarify the legislative functions of official visitors in response to the review findings that there was a lack of shared understanding about the official visitors’ roles across all areas. The review recommended that the Official Visitor Act be amended to more clearly set out the functions of an official visitor, including their role in highlighting systemic issues.
The bill amends the Official Visitor Act to state that the functions of official visitors include visiting a place and meeting entitled people at the place; monitoring conditions and services at the place; investigating and seeking to resolve complaints from or on behalf of entitled people at the place; identifying and reporting on systemic issues adversely affecting entitled people at the place; referring complaints to other investigative entities where appropriate; and reporting to ministers as required.
The bill also includes legislative principles to guide the exercise of an official visitor’s functions. The bill sets out that an official visitor must respect and promote the human rights of entitled people and promote high quality care, service and treatment that is centred on their needs. They must consider the wishes of entitled people in relation to visits and how complaints are dealt with and encourage the early resolution of complaints whenever reasonable and practicable to do so. I am confident that this reflects how the official visitors within my current and past portfolios have conducted themselves.
Another significant amendment is changes to improve the coverage and flexibility of the official visitor scheme. Under the current framework, official visitors are appointed under their separate operational acts. This has prevented official visitors from covering for each other and visiting places under a different operational act if an official visitor goes on leave or resigns. Centralising the appointment of official visitors under the Official Visitor Act and allowing official visitors to visit places under different operational acts where required will overcome this issue.
In line with the review, the bill also seeks to make amendments to provide a more comprehensive reporting framework. These and other amendments in the bill will strengthen the role of the official visitors.
I would like to take this opportunity to commend the official visitors on their commitment to ensuring that vulnerable people in Canberra have a voice for their concerns and their actions to remedy systemic issues that affect some of the most vulnerable people in the community.
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