Page 2490 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 1 July 2008
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covered by the Minister for Children and Young People. However, I will speak about some aspects of the bill which I support and I will also be moving an amendment regarding one aspect of the bill that I do not support.
I am glad to see that the bill introduces quite comprehensive reporting provisions, including mandatory reporting provisions for health professionals, mandatory forwarding of reports from the Public Advocate to the chief executive of the Office of Children, Youth and Family Support and provisions for prenatal reporting on anticipated abuse and neglect. I understand that the reporting of anticipated abuse and neglect during the prenatal period is consistent with the view that the early response is critical to ensuring the wellbeing of children. This view seems to me to be a correct one. Whilst I have no professional experience in the area of child protection, it seems to me to be common sense that the earlier we act on a problem, or an anticipated problem, the greater our options and the greater our chances of success.
One particularly worthwhile aspect of the bill is the provision for reporting of anticipated neglect or abuse of a child which has been conceived but has not yet been born. The bill allows the chief executive to receive prenatal reports and to provide information to the person who made the report. This bill makes provision for cases in which the chief executive has consent of the pregnant mother and for cases where consent is withheld. My declared position, along with others, about the importance of protecting life in the womb is well known in this place.
Abuse or neglect might be anticipated in the prenatal period in circumstances in which a parent, particularly the pregnant mother, has a history of drug or alcohol abuse and there is a continuing danger of this kind of abuse. Abuse or neglect might also be anticipated in the prenatal period if the pregnant mother has previously been the victim of domestic violence from the father of the child.
These provisions ensure that the chief executive is able to begin to consider and deal with possible neglect or abuse before it arises. In some cases, it is possible that even the investigatory aspects of these provisions might provide a wake-up call to a pregnant mother who is asked to provide information pertaining to her circumstances.
The bill also ensures that prenatal information is regarded as sensitive information under the act and is subject to the protections applying to all sensitive information under the act. This is important to uphold the privacy of the mother and father of the child and to ensure that reports are not used improperly.
One of the things I would have liked to see in this bill is some greater provision for transparency about instances of abuse of children that are in the care of the Office of Children, Youth and Family Support. It seems to me to be imperative that we are able to ensure that instances of abuse in government care are reported frankly and fearlessly and are able to be scrutinised by outside bodies. While it is obviously important to ensure the privacy of children in government care, I think we also need to be able to ensure that government care is sufficiently transparent to ensure that instances of abuse are dealt with.
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