Page 2197 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 4 June 2013
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The two new schemes created by the Official Visitor Act have received in this bill the same careful and particular attention as the established schemes received from this government before its passage. The bill will contribute to the efficacy of these new schemes, and their ability to withstand the rigours of their intended and necessary use.
In short, this bill ensures the new and revised schemes will be fit for their intended purpose.
The changes made by this bill will ensure that the revised scheme will offer measurable and effective protections for the most vulnerable members of our community. The detail we put in today will help to increase our knowledge about systemic risks in each environment. With the benefit of this knowledge, we will ensure our services and initiatives reflect best practice, and the ACT will be a model for service standards and rights protection across Australia.
Official visitors are exceptional individuals and champions of human rights in our society. They work in difficult environments in various ways, to uphold the rights of the most vulnerable people. Official visitors are remunerated for their time, but perform a function that has a significant public service element. They are selected on the basis of their unique talent for observation and communication. Their role requires them to maintain a delicate and difficult balance—they must maintain credibility and trust within their respective environments, but remain independent from both the systems they monitor and the people they visit. They are the eyes and ears of ministers. They are “canaries in the mines”, but they are not the servants of the ministers they report to or the agencies they observe. They must maintain communication with various statutory office holders but maintain their own judgement. They are not advocates, but intercede in cases where a simple resolution is necessary and appropriate.
Members will agree that the official visitor scheme occupies a very special place in the ACT. Official visitors are highly valued throughout the community. The government is committed to supporting the scheme and the official visitors who work tirelessly to protect and correct the systems that support our most vulnerable.
When the Attorney-General presented this bill, he explained in detail its changes to technical provisions in the act. Now, doing this on behalf of the Attorney-General, I will explain the need for those changes. But what I want to talk about today is the government’s vision for what these schemes will achieve.
If we focus too closely on the minutiae of this bill, we may risk losing sight of our broader purpose. The broader purpose of the Official Visitor Amendment Bill is the support and continuation of the scheme that supports and protects our most vulnerable citizens.
This bill is a grouping of legislative adjustments. But, more than this, it represents the government’s commitment to the human rights principles on which our administration is based. It acknowledges the inherent dignity and worth, and the equal human rights, of all people in our community. And it is driven by the sober understanding that, as a
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