Page 1551 - Week 06 - Thursday, 2 July 2020
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I commend the government for much work already undertaken in this space during this term of the Assembly, including implementing the reportable conduct scheme, supporting the redress scheme, obliging information about child sexual abuse heard in the confessional to be notified, and adopting a number of other recommendations arising from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
I acknowledge that this legislation goes a step further in giving effect to the national standards for working with children checks and continues to build on increasing the kinds of protections we all wished were in place when we heard of the harrowing accounts of child sexual abuse in institutional care. Unfortunately, I am sure we will continue to hear of more appalling accounts of mistreatment and abuse as the royal commissions into aged care and disability unfold. I hope that, commensurately, practical recommendations for the reform of those processes will be enhanced.
This bill provides assurance to systems to keep children safe and will better inform decisions about whether a person with a history of various types of serious charges or convictions should be registered or maintain their registration to work with children. This legislation also brings into line the same protections for people with disability or other vulnerabilities who need workers to assist them to achieve choice and control in their lives under NDIS. This high standard of background screening in areas of child-related work and regulated activities under the national disability insurance scheme, the NDIS, is a necessary step to take.
I was pleased to note that the legislation allows for special considerations where a kinship carer has been convicted of a class A, or a more serious, offence. The consequence of this is that a thorough risk assessment will occur prior to any automatic disqualification of a kinship carer. This respects and acknowledges the importance of family and protects the rights and interests of children by ensuring that children who cannot be cared for by their parents remain connected to their family, community and cultural identity. In this way their cultural rights are also promoted.
The different treatment for kinship carers is not extended to foster carers, with the exception of the grandfathering clause, where those already in fostering arrangements with a class A offence will also be risk assessed instead of automatically disqualified. But for new foster carers or existing foster carers with new children, the automatic disqualification of someone who commits a class A offence further protects the rights and interests of children by ensuring their carer is appropriately suitable to care for the most vulnerable children in the ACT.
All of these safeguards are important. There is overwhelming evidence that, unfortunately, ill-intended people tend to prey on the vulnerable as opposed to those who can stand up to them. People can be vulnerable for all sorts of reasons, but clearly the most evident is that of being a child. We must do what we can to protect them, as well as adults with vulnerability, such as disability or age.
An obvious consequence of this bill is that some people will automatically or otherwise be disqualified from registering to work with vulnerable children or adults.
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