Mr. John Farrelly:

I will speak to this initially before handing over the Dr. Finnerty and Mr. Kiernan. Sharing the Vision is a Government policy which sets out a framework. It is up to providers to work within that framework but they must also work within our rules. We have gone out to a full public consultation on seclusion and restrictive practices. That has never happened before and people were worried about it because they somehow felt that it was something that should not be discussed or that it was a private matter, but it is not. It is a public matter. We will be putting strong rules in place with regard to seclusion and restrictive practices and people will have to work within them. It will be an offence under the Act not to. If there are breaches of these rules, prosecution will be our next step. The first prosecution under the Mental Health Act 2001 happened a couple of years ago and related to seclusion. As far as the commission is concerned, there absolutely should be strategies in place and we should go this way. However, at the same time, we will not tolerate breaches of the rules. I will hand over to Mr. Kiernan and then Dr. Finnerty to give the Senator a fuller explanation.