Page 4866 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 25 October 2011
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procedures for compliance with the act. The government have listened to the concerns raised by employers and have made the amendments appropriate to their concerns.
The majority of stakeholders and members of the community want a checking scheme implemented in the ACT as soon as possible and the implementation phase of the working with vulnerable people background checking scheme will commence 12 months after the bill is passed by the Assembly.
But the government has not finished talking with the community on this matter. During the first 12 months of the bill’s enactment an implementation working group will be established. The draft governance structure for the working group has been provided to members and will be finalised after discussion with the stakeholders. One of the group’s first tasks will be to agree how the community will know about the implementation of the checking scheme across all regulated activities and services.
I will now talk to the amendments that I have circulated. Government amendment No 1 proposes to add a new clause to the bill which provides the time line for completion of background checking of all employees, volunteers and self-employed people providing regulated activities or services. This new clause will compel people working or volunteering in regulated activities or services provided exclusively to children to be subject to the background checking in the first year that the scheme commences. The most vulnerable people in our community will receive the protection of the bill during its first year of operation.
People working or volunteering in regulated activities and services which can be accessed by both children and vulnerable adults are to be subject to background checking during years two, three, five and six of the scheme. The fourth year of the implementation will be dedicated to review of the operation. Employers and self-employed people will continue to be responsible for maintaining police checks pending their staff or their own registration under the scheme.
The bill required clarification that the exemption of students on school initiated work placements or doing practical placements includes those students in college. Similarly, the bill required clarification that some employers supporting students on school initiated work placements or practical training may not be required to be registered or have contact with vulnerable people. Government amendments 2 and 3 clarify that high school and college students on school initiated work placements or doing a practical placement, and their employers, can be exempt from registration.
Government amendment 4 exempts sworn police officers from other jurisdictions and other AFP appointees from registration. The inclusion of sworn officers from other jurisdictions and other AFP appointees was an oversight during the development of the bill and this amendment addresses the concern raised by ACT Policing.
Government amendments 5 and 6 exempt from registration those employees and volunteers whose only contact with vulnerable people is providing a service at the public counter, giving or receiving information by telephone or working with a record. Where the inherent requirements of an employee’s or volunteer’s role do not include face to face contact with vulnerable people there is a lower risk of vulnerable people
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