Page 380 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 19 February 2019
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vast majority of teachers act with professionalism and care for their students, it is important that there are rigorous processes in place to investigate and respond to any allegations of inappropriate behaviour.
The bill tightens the requirements around teachers maintaining a current working with vulnerable people check so that a teacher’s working with vulnerable people approval must remain current at all times and cannot lapse while the teacher is registered.
The bill also ensures that the Teacher Quality Institute can obtain information about a teacher where there may have been a breach of their conditions of registration. The new section clarifies that information can be provided to TQI during an investigation, not just when one is fully completed. This also includes situations where an investigation is started but not completed due to a person resigning. In these circumstances it is appropriate for TQI to be aware that an investigation was started, as it may be relevant to decisions about that person’s registration, particularly if they choose to seek employment at another school.
Of course a decision to suspend or cancel a teacher’s registration has serious consequences and should not be taken lightly. All people involved in an investigation must be afforded natural justice before any decisions are made. But this should not prevent the sharing of information and does not ease the burden on TQI to make robust, evidence-based and defensible decisions. I believe that the new provisions balance the rights of children to be protected with the right of an individual to fair process.
The rights of children and young people in the ACT must be protected and promoted. We have an obligation to provide a healthy, safe and sustainable environment for children and young people to live and thrive. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse showed some harrowing stories of what happens when this does not occur.
Through this bill the ACT government is continuing its commitment to implement the recommendations of the royal commission by addressing those recommendations that relate to non-government schools. The bill allows the minister to make regulations outlining the conditions and criteria that non-government schools must meet in order to be registered in the ACT. This includes addressing the child safe standards through their policies and procedures, as recommended by the royal commission.
The bill also implements recommendation 26 of the Glanfield inquiry, requiring that when a child is unenrolled from school and the school has had concerns about that child, the Education Directorate should confirm the move with the family and confirm enrolment in a new jurisdiction. Through this bill the Education Directorate can respond to a request for information about the enrolment status of a child from another jurisdiction. Again there are competing rights involved. The bill allows for the sharing of information while maintaining appropriate privacy protections.
The Greens support the continual review of ACT legislation to strengthen the human rights of children and young people, including protecting them from neglect, abuse and disadvantage. Our schools play a key role in providing supportive, caring learning
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