Page 977 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 29 March 2011
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throughout the development of this system that the community be consulted on the development of this campaign.
The scheme will begin 12 months from the start of the act. Volunteers and new employees, including new ACT public service employees, will be checked in the first three years of operation, with existing employees to follow.
The staged implementation of the checks will be cost effective. Employees will be required to meet the cost of the check, which will be $71, and there will be no cost to volunteers. New ACT public service employees will be subject to a fee payment from the commencement of the checking scheme. Existing public service employees will be subject to fee payment when the checking for this group commences.
Since 2008, extensive consultation has occurred with the community organisations who provide services to vulnerable people, interested community members, unions and the government and non-government services, including the Children and Youth Services Council and the Youth Coalition of the ACT. It is clear from these consultations on the development of the bill and the supporting risk assessment guidelines that the ACT community supports this policy. The ACT community wants a centralised background checking system that takes into account a person’s criminal history, including spent convictions and non-conviction information.
The community have told me that they want a process of background checking and risk assessment to be effectively managed. They do not want delays in processing applications, nor to have to deal with unnecessary red tape, and they want the current and future employees and volunteers who work with vulnerable people to be treated equitably and have a checking process which provides the opportunities to challenge a risk assessment decision which they believe is wrong.
The bill allows equitable and reviewable decisions to be reached on the suitability of a person working with vulnerable people in a regulated activity. The bill provides a legislative authority supported by the risk assessment guidelines.
Some community leaders expressed concern with the risk assessment process during the community roundtable which I hosted back in September last year. A number of concerns raised included establishing an expert panel who would provide the commissioner with advice on the potential risks posed by particular applicants, the impact of employees’ lived experiences on their eligibility for registration, even though these lived experiences contribute significantly to their understanding of and connecting with certain vulnerable people, and employees being permitted to ask the commissioner to remove a condition from their registration.
This government and I personally have certainly listened to the community sector. Based on the feedback from the roundtable I held on the checks, I can foreshadow an amendment to change the position-based registration to a role-based registration. I have also announced amendments for the appointment of a panel of experts with experience or expertise in relevant fields, to enhance the screening process. The amendment will authorise the commissioner to consult one or more of the panel experts for advice when considering issuing a person with a role-based registration or
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