Page 1499 - Week 06 - Thursday, 2 July 2020
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MR RAMSAY: I thank Mr Wall for the question. It is an important question, and I am happy to provide the information on that today. Access Canberra does acknowledge that there was some recent correspondence that was indeed poorly worded. Access Canberra is in the process of contacting everyone who received the letter, and apologises for the confusion and distress that has been caused to people. I certainly echo that apology to those people.
The key thing with driver tests and with medical and eye tests is to make sure there is clarity, for safety, not only for the driver themselves but also for the broader public. Access Canberra has taken a risk-based approach to working through a range of matters during the complexity of COVID-19—looking at how the normal time frames for getting eye tests or other medical tests could be worked through. Some areas that are low risk were given an automatic extension. Obviously, for people who have a high risk condition, and that may be something like Alzheimer’s or epilepsy, a condition that may be deteriorating—it may be—
Mr Wall: A point of order, Madam Speaker.
MADAM SPEAKER: Resume your seat, please. A point of order?
Mr Wall: On relevance, the question specifically was: on what basis are the individual recipients of the letter assessed as having a medical condition that deems them to be a high risk to road safety? I would like the minister to be directly relevant to how an individual is assessed, not what measures have been taken.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Wall, I think he was going into the levels of risk. Could you go to that point, thank you, Mr Ramsay?
MR RAMSAY: Indeed. The risk is assessed on the medical conditions that people may have. There are a range of matters. It might be a low risk situation, which is when their medical condition is unlikely to deteriorate. A medium risk is something that might deteriorate but it can be controlled with medication, and a high risk is—(Time expired).
MR WALL: Minister, where was the failure in process that allowed a poorly worded letter to get through the internal processes of Access Canberra, and who was responsible for the final approval of the letter that was ultimately sent?
MR RAMSAY: Again, it is an important question. As I say, it was an error in process for which Access Canberra and I apologise. The initial work that we have been doing is to make sure that people have been contacted to receive the apology and to make sure that people have clarified what it is that can be done at this stage. I have also directed Access Canberra to do further work to review exactly where the issue was. It does seem to have been an administrative error that occurred within Access Canberra, but I am following that one through with people in the directorate.
MRS DUNNE: Minister, can you guarantee that all recipients of the letter have received an apology, that their circumstances are looked into individually and that anyone who did not need to have a specialist appointment has been assured of that?
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