Page 1680 - Week 06 - Thursday, 23 July 2020
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in reply: It is certainly a privilege to be able to close the debate on this very significant piece of legislation. I thank Mr Hanson and Mr Rattenbury for their comments, their contribution to this debate—again, an important one for us to be marking with tripartisan support. The Coroners Amendment Bill 2020 aims to support families, families who are engaging with the coronial process, and it is a significant step forward in creating a better, more compassionate and more restorative coronial system.
The bill amends the Coroners Act 1997. It builds on the ACT’s momentum towards integrating restorative approaches into the daily practices of the Coroner’s Court. The loss of a loved one is a devastating experience; and our coronial system must be able to support families and friends throughout that experience. The coronial process should, wherever possible, bring people together to work collaboratively so that they are and feel heard and that the systems are genuinely open to what is being said.
When I presented this bill to the Assembly earlier this year, I highlighted that the proposed amendments come from a place of compassionate concern to embrace restorative practice. That is a key point that I emphasise again today. Restorative practice is sometimes called relational practice. It is grounded in the understanding that relationships are central to who we are and how we function as individuals and as a community. At the system level, this means critically assessing institutional cultures, redesigning our processes, understanding what it means to put relationships at the very centre of our systems, because that is the thing upon which our community is built.
In our coronial process there is the challenge of balancing the legal rights of all interested parties and at the same stage honouring the deep need of family and friends to be engaged at every point in the system—doing that in ways that are meaningful, thoughtful and appropriate—and that is the challenge that the government is committed to seeing through. That is the challenge that the Coroners Amendment Bill 2020 is helping to address.
The amendments to the objects clause in the Coroners Act are a clear moral compass to guide practices of the court at the highest level. They enshrine restorative principles in the act; they focus on ensuring that the coronial practices respect culture; and recognise that families and friends going through a coronial inquest are, indeed, active participants, people who are personally impacted by the process, with an equal voice to that of medical professionals and other officials.
Other amendments focus on practical steps, allowing families to engage more effectively with the coronial process. These recognise the need for families to be made more aware of the progress of matters at the earliest point, so that family members have the time to emotionally and physically prepare to make arrangements in order to fairly participate if they choose to participate.
The amendments include a change to include step-parents in the definition of immediate family, and the creation of an error correction power to allow a coroner to amend the findings to correct an error, mistake or omission. These changes will mean that families will not have to go through expensive, time-consuming and emotionally
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