Page 4306 - Week 14 - Thursday, 24 October 1991
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. persons employed in the Department of the Capital Territory or by the Capital Territory Health Commission, whose duties include matters relative to children's welfare; and
. persons for the time being in charge of licensed child-minding centres.
I take the view, and I am sure my Rally colleagues will support me, that it is an extreme step when a community takes conscience from any public official and makes it mandatory for them to inform on someone or to report some event. Clearly, there is a considerable issue of conscience involved in that, and it requires careful thought as to whether it will impose upon a certain class of individuals a duty to inform, with the correlative that they may be held responsible for wilful neglect or almost, in extreme cases, aiding and abetting offences. Those issues have come up for debate in the past.
The other matter to consider is that since these recommendations were made, and during the time that section 103 has lain ungazetted, the health legislation has been introduced in this house. The health Act of last year - section 56, from memory - imposes a secrecy provision upon health employees and health workers. That secrecy provision would seem, at this stage, to be somewhat inconsistent with the way section 103 was worded back in 1986. One needs to have regard to the commitment I gave as Attorney of that day to have the section 56 secrecy provisions reviewed. Those matters, I presume, are in hand.
Mr Speaker, the Rally does not support a pre-emptive decision on mandatory reporting. We are not saying that we do not support it. We are not giving our view; we are waiting for a properly held community report on this issue. As I said the other day, there was widespread concern in the United Kingdom over a situation where a medical practitioner gave various reports, combined with some public health officials, that resulted in a massive injustice involving more than 100 cases and subsequently compensation.
The checks and balances required are not in place in section 103 - I say to Mr Stefaniak, through you, Mr Speaker - and I would be most reluctant to then slip this pass to the police, who have their own problems at the moment. They perform excellent work over at the sexual assault unit. If members refer to the annual report of the Department of Justice and Community Services, tabled yesterday in the Assembly, they will see reference there to the special coordinating unit that has been set up to deal with child abuse situations and allegations. That is an interdisciplinary committee. It is referred to in the relevant section in the Department of Justice and Community Services report.
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