Page 2609 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 21 September 2022
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The importance of information sharing is echoed by other jurisdictions. Every second year, the New South Wales Coroner prepares a domestic violence death review report. These reports inevitably include deaths that may have been prevented if agencies and services had shared information about clients under threat of domestic violence, and had taken action to prevent the violence from escalating. On 29 June 2022, the findings of the coronial inquest into the tragic death of Hannah Clarke and her children were released. While there were many contributing factors that led to this unthinkable tragedy, it is clear that improvements to the way information is shared between agencies is necessary to get a full picture of domestic and family violence risk. When this risk is understood, agencies can work together more effectively to hold perpetrators to account, and to provide support to the people impacted by this violence.
The central elements of the proposed information-sharing scheme for the ACT are as follows. Agencies designated by the minister to be information-sharing entities will be able to disclose information to each other to provide a coordinated, integrated and timely response for a victim-survivor. Victim-survivor consent is intended to be central to the proposed information-sharing scheme. Information-sharing entities will work hard to support victims-survivors to make informed choices to engage in the scheme. Information can only be shared to the extent necessary to achieve a protection purpose. A protection purpose includes undertaking a risk assessment and/or taking action to prevent and respond to domestic and family violence. There will be limited circumstances where information may be shared without the consent of a victim-survivor, to protect their safety. For example, where seeking consent could, in itself, put at risk the life, health or safety of a victim-survivor.
The scheme will protect the information shared by agencies by prohibiting the reckless sharing of information by information-sharing entities. This is consistent with approaches that the ACT government has taken to provide the privacy of sensitive, personal information elsewhere. The scheme will enable the making of detailed operational guidelines and regulations relevant to information sharing, to support its implementation. The scheme will be subject to review after two years of operation. This means there will be an opportunity to consider what has worked well and where there is room for improvements, to assist us to achieve better outcomes for victims-survivors of domestic and family violence. This is complex and detailed legislation which has required extensive consultation to develop as we balance competing human rights considerations.
The purpose of this legislative reform is to promote the safety, protection and wellbeing of victims-survivors of domestic and family violence and those who are at risk. To this end, I am pleased to advise the Assembly that the ACT government is commencing a public consultation process through the YourSay website on the proposed information-sharing scheme. This consultation process will involve sharing a draft bill, alongside a discussion paper to guide community feedback on more complex issues related to a proposed legislated information-sharing scheme.
In addition to the YourSay consultation process, we will continue to consult closely with key government and community sector agencies so that we can get this model right. To do this, we will be working to ensure that the views, experiences and expertise of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is front and centre, given the
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