Page 4185 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 21 September 2010
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noted that, while persons who have daily care responsibility for a child or young person under the act in the territory may provide consent, the act does not override the capacity of a young person to provide their own informed consent to a dental procedure on the advice of a relevant professional.
The minor amendments proposed by the minister to the Children and Young People Act 2008 continue to improve the applicability of this extensive and complex legislation. The amendments are important to children and young people in the territory and to those working towards improving the care and protection of our children and young people. As I said before, there can be no better objective, and I commend this bill to the Assembly.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Planning, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation and Minister for Gaming and Racing) (11.24): I wish to take the opportunity to speak briefly in support of this legislation and to commend Minister Burch for these important amendments. I remind members of the Assembly that the Children and Young People Act 2008 was passed unanimously by the Assembly in July of that year. It was a significant, complex and comprehensive piece of legislation about protecting and caring for the ACT’s children and young people.
The Children and Young People Act 2008 seeks, together with the community, to address the needs of vulnerable and at-risk children and young people in the ACT. In addition to protecting vulnerable and at-risk children, the act regulates childcare licences, the employment of children and young people and provides for youth justice issues.
The Children and Young People Act 2008 is comprehensive. It has 888 sections, and is more than 770 pages long. Therefore, it is only to be expected that, as child protection teams, youth workers and the childcare sector work with this legislation on a day-to-day basis, minor amendments will be necessary. It is simply part of a high quality and ongoing policy review process.
There are four areas that have been reformed, as a result of this review and as a result of reflection on the operation of the act. One of the key amendments relates to mandatory reporting and home schooling. As the territory’s education and training minister, I believe that we need a range of educational settings to suit the diverse needs of our students. Home schooling is one of these settings. But, just as we regulate and monitor our schools, both government and non-government, and just as we need to regulate our alternative education programs, such as those provided by the CIT and the apprenticeships and traineeships that are run by registered training providers, so, too, we must make sure appropriate checks and balances exist for home schooling.
So this amendment will transfer the mandatory reporting obligations from those who provide home schooling to those who are authorised under the Education Act 2004 to inspect home schooling arrangements. These amendments are beneficial, and they are necessary to support the important work undertaken by our care and protection staff.
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