Mr. Adam Harris:

The Senator's question covers the heart of what we are discussing today, which is the involvement of people with disabilities throughout this process, including the legislative and pre-legislative process that is happening now, as well as what will happen when this legislation comes into effect. It is important to understand that the State has an obligation under Article 4 of the UNCRPD to proactively engage with the disability representative organisations and disabled people. The UN has interpreted that in some detail in general comment No. 7. It looks at the sorts of reasonable accommodations that the State needs to make in its consultative processes to ensure that the voices of disabled people are at the heart of the process. The commission will be happy to circulate a copy of the general comment to members after the meeting.

The Senator asked what implications for disabled people are in this regard. It is important to realise that this is the start of a three-year process. IHREC has to be clear how wards will be communicated with during this process of a journey from the wardship system towards this assisted decision-making system. Furthermore, we are concerned about the limited nature of appeals that seems to exist when compared with the Mental Health Act. We are also concerned about the lack of clarity about what right to legal representation wards will have and about timeframes that would enable a person to be detained, which are less clear and less specific than what is in place in the Mental Health Act.