Page 382 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 19 February 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Minister for Planning and Land Management, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister assisting the Chief Minister on Advanced Technology and Space Industries) (11.21): It gives me great pleasure to rise in this place as a member for Brindabella in support of this bill.
The bill furthers the protection of children and young people in schools by more clearly defining the roles and responsibilities of those that have a duty of care for them. This has been achieved in a number of ways. One way in which this bill provides better protection is in strengthening the current requirements around working with vulnerable people registration as a condition of teacher registration. Not only does the bill make it clear that it is the responsibility of the teacher to maintain their vulnerable persons registration; it also places an onus on the employer to take on more of a role in monitoring and passing on information about vulnerable persons registration of teachers within schools.
Through this bill the government is furthering its implementation of the findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. This was an important royal commission, and I want to acknowledge the work of former Prime Minister Gillard in helping to set up this commission of inquiry.
The commission helped our nation to get an insight into the suffering of some of our most vulnerable citizens, providing a pathway forward and, importantly, allowing survivors and their families to have their voices heard. The territory government has accepted the findings of the commission, and I look forward to seeing progress being made.
This bill takes us a step forward in implementing the 19 recommendations of the commission relating to the non-government school sector. The recommendations of the commission concerned information sharing, record keeping, responses to incidents, child safety standards and complaint handling.
Specifically, the bill allows the non-government sector to have more clarity on what is required for registration of schools in the territory. This is achieved through the bill enabling the minister to make regulations that will set out what is required for registration, including what policies and procedures in relation to child safety should be in place. Implementing the recommendations of the commission must be a collaborative effort, and I am pleased that the bill provides a commitment to the non-government school sector from the ACT government to do just this.
The bill also enables the Education Directorate to share information about students in certain circumstances. Overall this is a commendable bill and I hope this place agrees to its passage.
As this bill relates to the education sector, I also want to take the opportunity to make a few remarks about the importance of education. Too often in this place we have negativity about the education sector and those who seek to teach and inspire our students. Every day our teachers inspire, care for and help children across the territory.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video