Northern Territory Numbered Acts Northern Territory Numbered Acts(1) Without limiting what may constitute more than incidental contact , the normal duties of a role are likely to require more than incidental contact with a participant if those duties include:
(a) physically touching a participant; or
(b) building a rapport with a participant as an integral and ordinary part of the performance of those duties; or
(c) having contact with multiple participants:
(i) as part of the direct delivery of a specialist disability support or service; or
(ii) in a specialist disability accommodation setting.
Examples for subsection (1)
1 The role of an employee involves the delivery of mobility equipment to the homes of participants. As a standard part of that role, the employee provides training and instructions to the participant about how to use the equipment safely and makes adjustments to the equipment to make it suitable for the participant. This role is likely to require more than incidental contact. This is because there is "contact" with the participant. The ordinary content of that contact (testing the participant's needs and preferences with them, talking about and responding to the nature of their disability) means that there is a level of openness and trust required on the part of the participant which would routinely involve the employee building a level of rapport with them.
2 An accountant works for a business that supplies custom prosthetics to participants, and performs only "back office" duties. The accountant has coincidental contact with participants many work days, when moving through public areas of the business, at which time the accountant nods and says hello to the customers. The accountant's role does not involve more than incidental contact with participants. This is because the duties of the role do not require the accountant to have more than polite, functional contact with participants, or get to know them in any way.
(2) In this section:
"contact" includes physical contact, face-to-face contact, oral communication, written communication and electronic communication.