Labor welcomes the ten recommendations of the Robertson review of the tragic death-by-neglect of South Australian woman Ann Marie Smith.

We thank Mr Robertson for his work. We urge the Morrison Government to accept and urgently implement these important recommendations.

Many of the recommendations are so vital and obvious that a seven-year-old Government and a two-year-old watchdog should really not need a review to be told to bring them about.

They include -

• The disability watchdog actually doing unannounced spot checks on disability providers.
• Correcting the problem of failing to identify and address the neglect and abuse of people with disability.
• Implementing a community visitor scheme.

Alan Robertson SC has been polite in his language. But it is clear from his recommendations that the watchdog has not been set up properly and that NDIS Minister Stuart Robert has failed to take corrective action despite a litany of tragic cases of NDIS abuse, neglect and death.

The review of Ms Smith’s death certainly portrays the national disability watchdog as inactive, toothless and hamstrung.

It is a far cry from Commissioner Graeme Head’s description of what the Coalition Government had set up as having “comprehensive regulatory powers and functions, and real regulatory teeth” “and “we protect and prevent neglect and abuse of people with disability”.

Mr Robert’s comment today that – “The government has already taken action to strengthen systems and processes to bolster support for vulnerable or at-risk NDIS participants” – is misleading. In the five months since Ms Smith’s death Mr Robert has introduced minor tweaks which have not yet even passed the Parliament.

Enough spin and fairy tales. Mr Robert must now say whether the Government accept the recommendations from the independent review and whether it will implement them.

FRIDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 2020

MEDIA: LIAM HOULIHAN (SHORTEN) 0438 366 400