Health And Community Services Complaints (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill

This speech is to indicate support for the Health And Community Services Complaints (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: I rise to indicate support for this amendment. The mover spoke about transparency. I think there is also a lot of very important information that can be collected from agencies such as this which can inform our health system. The report in The Advertiser, which I assume is referring to the annual report, refers to 708 complaints in a year, and I think that if we are able to break down that data as per the amendment to this bill moved by the Hon. Robert Brokenshire, that would be very useful in informing our health services.

I would have thought that it would be fairly standard practice for any complaints commissioner or ombudsman or such agency whose role is to deal with complaints and investigations to collect the sort of data that this amendment outlines to be provided in the annual report, and I think that that sort of information is also important to us as legislators to assist us to understand the operations of the health system. With those words, I indicate support for this amendment.