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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-02-21 Daily Xml
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Bills

Child Sex Offenders Registration (Child-Related Work) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (15:50): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I am pleased to introduce the Child Sex Offenders Registration (Child­Related Work) Amendment Bill 2023, a very important piece of legislation to protect the children of South Australia. This bill would prevent registered child sex offenders and those accused of registrable child sex offences from working in jobs where they will have contact with underage employees. As a further measure to the suite of reforms that this government has taken to protect South Australian children from child sex offenders, this bill would protect children in our community from being exposed to child sex predators in their place of employment.

Young people are undeniably an important and vibrant part of the South Australian workforce. Many people have part-time jobs or are earning a qualification through a work-based apprenticeship. Like any other employee, these young people are entitled to be safe at work and, due to their age, should be especially protected in their workplace.

There is currently nothing preventing a registered child sex offender from taking a job working alongside or even managing underage employees. Whilst registered child sex offenders are prohibited from applying for or engaging in child-related work, at present working in a business that employs children is not considered child-related work.

This bill would amend the definition of child-related work in the Child Sex Offenders Registration Act 2006 so that it will include work in a business or undertaking that employs children, where the work would involve contact with the child. Contact with a child includes physical contact, as well as oral or written communications. Therefore, the bill would prevent child sex offenders working anywhere that has underage employees, unless it could be shown that the work involved no contact with the children—for example, if they worked at different times of the day.

Because a wide range of businesses employ young people, exemptions allowing work with child employees may be appropriate in some circumstances on a case-by-case basis. For example, this may be required if the registered offender was a tradesperson and wished to work at a site that at that point in time also employed one 17-year-old apprentice.

The Child Sex Offenders Registration Act already allows the Commissioner of Police to grant individual exemptions from various requirements placed on registered offenders. The bill adds to this power, providing that the commissioner may make a declaration allowing a registered child sex offender to work with child employees if:

the child sex offences committed by the offender were not committed in connection with any child-related work; and

the commissioner is satisfied that the offender does not pose a risk to the safety and wellbeing of children employed in the business or undertaking that constitutes the child-related work.

This will allow the commissioner to conduct a risk assessment of the proposed work and grant an exemption if it is appropriate to do so.

Child-related work is also regulated in the Bail Act. Under the current law, an accused child sex offender's bail agreement must have a condition that they not engage in child-related work. As child-related work in the Bail Act is defined by reference to the Child Sex Offenders Registration Act, the bill will also effectively amend the Bail Act provisions, preventing alleged child sex offenders from work involving contact with child employees whilst their charges are pending. The bail authority may lift this condition if satisfied that the proposed work does not pose a risk to children.

Even if the bail authority sees fit to allow an alleged offender to work with child employees until their charges are determined, the amendments will mean that the alleged offender must inform their employer of the charges. This will ensure the employer is aware of the situation and allow them to take necessary steps to protect child employees as required.

It is worth making clear that this legislation does not place any new obligations or costs on businesses and employers. The onus is placed on the accused and convicted offenders to ensure their work situation complies with the expanded rules in relation to working alongside child employees. Of course, employers still have general obligations to keep all employees safe at work under existing workplace health and safety law. Should it come to an employer's attention that an employee might pose a risk to their underage co-workers, existing workplace health and safety laws on risk management will apply.

This bill would address a serious loophole in our current laws that has the potential to place children at risk of harm in their workplaces. I would like to thank the Hon. Connie Bonaros MLC for raising this issue during debate on a previous bill in the other place, and especially the SDA, SA and NT branch, for publicly advocating for this important change. The collaborative work from many parties with the government on this issue has been most welcome and highly productive. I commend the bill to members and seek leave to have the explanation of clauses inserted in Hansard without my reading it.

Leave granted.

Explanation of Clauses

Part 1—Preliminary

1—Short title

2—Commencement

These clauses are formal.

Part 2—Amendment of Child Sex Offenders Registration Act 2006

3—Amendment of section 64—Interpretation

This clause amends the definition of child-related work to include businesses or undertakings in which children are employed.

4—Amendment of section 66B—General power of Commissioner to make declaration

This clause allows the Commissioner to make a declaration exempting an offender from the operation of Part 5 or specified provisions of Part 5 in respect of work that is only child-related work by virtue of the proposed amendment in clause 3 if—

(a) the relevant offences were not committed in connection with any child-related work; and

(b) the Commissioner is satisfied that the offender does not pose a risk to the safety and well-being of children employed in the business or undertaking that constitutes the child-related work.

Schedule 1—Transitional provisions

1—Interpretation

This provision defines certain terms for the purposes of the Schedule.

2—Application of section 65 to certain registrable offenders

This provision allows an exemption of up to 6 months for a registrable offender whose employment is affected by the measure in order to give the person time to apply for a declaration under section 66B.

3—Application of section 66 to persons arrested or reported before commencement

The transitional provision deals with situations where a person arrested or reported for a class 1 or class 2 offence before the commencement of the measure becomes subject to the obligations in section 66 of the Child Sex Offenders Registration Act 2006 by virtue of the proposed amendment in clause 3.

4—Effect of amendment on bail applications

For the purposes of section 11 of the Bail Act 1985, the proposed amendment in clause 3 will only apply to a person who applies for bail on or after the commencement of that clause (regardless of whether the relevant offence was committed before or after that commencement).

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Pederick.

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