Child protection bill in parliament

By Jennifer Leete

The Child Protection Legislation Amendment Bill 2003 was passed through State Parliament's Lower House on October 29 without the Government working through the issues raised by Federation.

Consequently Federation will be seeking further improvements to the bill when it comes into the Upper House of the parliament.

Federation had commitments from the Government that they would not bring the legislation back into the Parliament until a number of issues being discussed with Federation, the Independent Education Union, the Catholic employers and independent employers as well as some child welfare groups had been resolved.

Essentially, the issue being discussed was that despite the political rhetoric of the media announcement that the legislation would address the concerns of teachers by making it no longer necessary to report a significant number of minor matters, as well as giving more capacity for principals to deal with issues at the school level, a closer examination of the legislation has led to some uncertainty that enough matters would now be "not reportable".

Since September, Federation has been involved in discussions with the Government to try to get clarification of these issues and to get them to make changes to their own legislation to make it clearer which matters were "not reportable".

Initially Federation sought to have the insertion of a "risk of harm" clause, so that matters would only have to be reported when a principal assessed that there was a "risk of harm" to a child. This is the same judgement that principals have to make in relation to DOCS notifications.

Federation has also sought an explicit reference to restraint of children for the purposes of maintaining their safety and/or the safety of other children.

The union has also been seeking penalties for people who make vexatious or malicious allegations.

"Despite the political rhetoric that the legislation would address the concerns of teachers, a closer examination has led to some uncertainty."

The Government's Bill is a significant improvement on the current legislation. However, in the absence of specific reference in the legislation to the matters the Federation seeks to have addressed, the extent to which there is a reduction in the number of minor or trivial matters being the subject of reporting, investigation and record keeping by external agencies will depend on separate negotiations with the Department of Education and Training, the Ombudsman's Office and the Commission for Children and Young People. Without clear direction from the legislation Federation cannot be sure that these groups will be prepared to shift from the "driftnet" approach which seeks to capture all matters, including the most trivial.

Federation is currently working with a number of other groups to lobby parliamentarians.

The union's Senior Officers will continue to work to achieve the best possible legislation to ensure the protection of teachers as well as children.

Jennifer Leete is the Deputy President.

For further information

November 2003 contents