Government urged to end restraints against people with disability

The institute has also said changes to restrictive practices, outlined in the government's Disability Inclusion Bill, need to be applicable beyond disability service providers.

Under the bill, chemical and physical restraints should only be used on a person with a disability as a last resort and in the interests of their own safety.

Unauthorised use of restrictive practices by a service provider can incur a fine of $39,000.

Disability Services Minister Jo Palmer said the bill had been informed by members of the Tasmanian disability community and taken into consideration recommendations from the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability and an Independent review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Yvette Maker, from the TLRI, said there should be a system-wide goal for the reduction, and eventual elimination, of the use of restrictive practices - beyond disability service providers.

She said the government needed to set a timeframe for its elimination, such as the 10-year target set by the Victorian government.

Under the bill, a person can defend themselves against the use of unauthorised restrictive practices if they can establish that it prevented serious harm against a person, that the method employed was the least intrusive type of restrictive practice or that approval was sought within five days of the practice being used.

Disability advocate David Morrell said this defence implied that a restrictive practice, even one that had a severe impact on a person's liberty and wellbeing, could go on for up to five days without authorisation.

He said a community visitor program should be created to monitor the use of restrictive practices, rather than have the senior practitioner or Disability Inclusion Commissioner wait for complaints and conduct an investigation.

"The most vulnerable cannot complain," Mr Morrell said.

"A community visitor scheme with scope to visit all relevant facilities would reduce this risk of unauthorised restrictive practices being perpetrated."