Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for that. I recognise that this issue has possibly not been thought through, given the events of the last week—but that is the way it is. How will that monitoring occur, Minister? The scope of this legislation is simply serious physical and sexual assault. How will we monitor the culture of being able to make a complaint and whether or not whistleblower protection should be afforded to a whole range of other complaints that will be made? I am unsure as to how it will happen. If we are monitoring the implementation of a compulsory reporting regime around very clear, specific, potentially criminal behaviour, then how are we going to monitor neglect in that environment or the need for whistleblower protection for people who report neglect? It just does not fit in the structure of this legislation. While I accept your commitment that this will occur, and I thank you for that, I would like to know how it is going to happen so that we can also watch how that monitoring might occur.