CHILDREN'S PROTECTION (NOTIFICATION) AMENDMENT BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 13 November 2013.)

The Hon. J.S. LEE (15:39): I rise on behalf of the opposition to speak to the Children's Protection (Notification) Amendment Bill. The bill seeks to enact recommended legislative amendments which were set out in the Royal Commission 2012-13 Report of the Independent Education Inquiry prepared by the Hon. Bruce Debelle AO QC. As the shadow parliamentary secretary for education and child protection, I believe this is an important reform. As indicated by my colleagues in the other place, the opposition will be supporting this bill as these two amendments to the Children's Protection Act are two of the 43 recommendations suggested by the Justice Debelle inquiry.

For the benefit of the council, the amendments proposed in this bill will address recommendations 26 and 27 of Justice Debelle's report and will enhance the current mandatory notification provisions in section 11 of the Children's Protection Act 1993. This section currently requires a mandated notifier who forms the view that a child has been or is being abused or neglected to report this suspicion to the Child Abuse Report Line (CARL).

Reports of child abuse are an extremely serious matter, and it is important that the South Australian system acknowledges the seriousness of such cases and introduces measures that will improve the system that will protect our children. Of course, they are one of our most vulnerable constituents. We need to protect our future generation from predators and these recommendations, as suggested by Justice Debelle, are definitely a step in the right direction.

I place on record my appreciation for the work that the South Australian Association of State School Organisations (SAASSO) has done. SAASSO is an organisation we supported last time we were in government because we have a strong belief that parents play an important role in their children's education. This parent body represents those very governing councils that sit in all our schools here in South Australia. The role, of course, of those governing councils is to assist in the governance of the school, and they work very closely with school principals.

I congratulate them for presenting important matters about the school community openly and I commend them specifically on a couple of articles they wrote for their monthly magazine, the School Post. Danyse Soester has made a significant contribution in the term 2, 2012 edition where she listed a chain of events with a time line of what actually happened. The summary captured the intimate details at which points members of parliament and the department have been involved. SAASSO witnessed an outpouring of anger from parents, unprecedented in the last decade. If you want to know more about it, the member for Unley has already outlined those details and you can refer to his speech in Hansard.

Today, Tuesday 26 November 2013, marks the 149^th day since the Debelle inquiry was handed down and, unfortunately, over the past year South Australians have continued to see the education department lurch from crisis to crisis on Premier Weatherill's watch. It has been over 12 months since the member for Unley, shadow minister for education and child protection, David Pisoni, first raised the case of a sexual assault of a child at a western suburbs school.

Since then, a number of other cases have come to light causing conflict within the education department as well as the Labor caucus. The new emerging cases reveal that there are further breakdowns between departmental and ministerial advisers, and it appears that lessons arising from the Debelle inquiry might not have been observed by the government. Even though one year may have passed since the first case was raised, South Australians are still faced with more questions than answers, especially in regard to the government's handling of this issue and about the education department in general.

Knowing that the Weatherill government is taking action on the recommendations suggested by Justice Debelle will hopefully provide some form of confidence for South Australian constituents, the opposition believes that such recommendations should have been introduced earlier and not left until the last month of the Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session.

The amendments in the bill will create defence provisions for mandated notifiers such as police officers, doctors, nurses, teachers and social workers in relation to their obligation to make a report in particular circumstances. I indicate that the Liberal opposition believes that these amendments will strengthen our system of protection for our children and we support this bill wholeheartedly.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:44): I rise briefly to advise the house that Family First will support the government on this bill, for the reasons the Hon. Jing Lee highlighted, so there is a defence mechanism there for mandatory reporters. Notwithstanding that we agree in principle with that, there are some very serious issues, some of which could have been addressed in legislation before the government got up for the election and which could have strengthened enormously the protection of our children in this state. In fact, today we have tabled an interim report with three key findings in it and a lot more work to be done by the select committee.

Whilst we support this, we are disappointed that there are not much harsher and more severe amendments to legislation before the parliament to be able to further address the issues of protection of children from child abuse. We did have an optional sitting week next week, I believe, and we could be coming back to do that. We have time in February to come back to parliament.

Finally, we are concerned that, potentially, at least 12 of the Debelle recommendations may not be implemented by 31 December, as the government said would be the situation. With those few words, we support the government's bill.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (15:46): The bill before the house today sets out to meet the government's stated intention to work to enact the recommended legislative amendments set out in the Royal Commission 2012-13 Report of the Independent Education Inquiry, prepared by the Hon. Bruce Debelle AO, QC.

The bill, as passed in the other house with unqualified support, I am advised, will address recommendations 26 and 27 of Justice Debelle's report and will enhance the current mandatory notification provisions in section 11 of the Children's Protection Act 1993. This follows a range of other measures the government has taken to protect children, including legislation already passed, which implement recommendations 28 and 29 of the Justice Debelle report, to amend the Child Sex Offenders Registration Act 2006 and the Summary Offences Act 1943.

The amendments in the bill before us will create defence provisions for mandated notifiers in relation to their obligation to report a suspicion of abuse or neglect in particular circumstances. The defence will be established when a mandated notifier has failed to notify a reasonable suspicion of neglect or abuse of a child because, first, the person become aware of such circumstances as a result of information imparted to them by a police officer (recommendation 26); or, secondly, the mandated notifier become aware of the child's situation from another mandated notifier who has already made a report in respect of the situation (recommendation 27). It is important to note that the inclusion of these defence provisions does not remove the obligation to notify a reasonable suspicion of the neglect or abuse of a child.

The requirement to report suspected child abuse remains an obligation for all those people who work with children, who are mandated notifiers under the act, and these amendments do not prevent a number of notifications being made in respect of the same child. The amendments will allow for common sense to prevail in a situation, such as detailed in Justice Debelle's report, that was included in the second reading speech—where a mandated notifier's suspicion of abuse or neglect is due solely to having been informed by a police officer or knowledge that another mandated notifier has made a report with the same information, then a defence is provided.

All mandated notifiers will still be required to report any additional or different facts or suspicions. For example, if two teachers are team teaching and, based on observations of a child, one forms a suspicion of abuse or neglect and the teacher tells the other teacher that they have made a notification to the Child Abuse Report Line and the other teacher has no other information, this teacher could use the defence provision if their failure to report was called into question. However, if either has additional information, both teachers would make a report.

All mandated notifiers will be advised of the new provisions as part of the ongoing training and updated information they are provided with regularly in the best interests of protecting our children. These are sensible amendments that still place the protection of children above all else. Currently, 26 of the 43 report recommendations, all of which the government has accepted, have been completed.

Notably, recommendation 25—that Families SA extend its existing processes of electronic notification to enable more people to make electronic notification—has also been addressed. I am advised that there are now 4,118 electronic notifiers registered, which is an increase from 260, as reported in the Independent Education Inquiry report, with 4,061 notifications having been received as at 26 November 2013. Enacting the amendments in this bill will ensure another two of Justice Debelle's recommendations are implemented. The government is committed to implementing the remainder of Justice Debelle's recommendations, and I commend this bill to the house.

Bill read a second time.

Committee Stage

Bill taken through committee without amendment.

Third Reading

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (15:51): I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Bill read a third time and passed.