Advocates have been calling for the changes to the Royal Commission Act for more than a year, warning that a loophole that allows the identity of witnesses to be released after the conclusion of the commission will stop potential whistleblowers from coming forward.
“It’s about time,” West Australian senator Jordon Steele-John, who lives with cerebral palsy, told SBS News in response to the bill. “After 18 months of campaigning for something that should have been done in the first days of the royal commission, it’s well about time.” A former auditor of supported residential facilities in South Australia, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told SBS News they had so far been unable to give evidence regarding the conditions they witnessed due to the risk of being identified in the future.
Asked whether they would consider giving evidence once the amendments were in place, the former auditor said: “oh, absolutely, not a hesitation at all.” "We're hearing stories every single day. The disability royal commission hasn't meant [disability support] providers are changing their behaviour, there are still people being abused in disability service settings, they're still being made the targets of hate crimes, and they're still experiencing preventable deaths," she said.