Page 4209 - Week 13 - Thursday, 19 November 2015
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governance protocol in consultation with the Director-General of the Justice and Community Safety Directorate as the Human Rights Commission’s host agency. This protocol, which must be published on the commission’s website, will set the ground rules for the relationship between the agencies. It will include a three-year strategic plan, the processes for allocating funding within the commission, a budget for each commissioner, performance criteria to be met by the commission, financial and performance reporting, and processes for requesting funding from government.
Second, the president will be required to develop, after consultation with the community, a client services charter to formalise the relationship between the Human Rights Commission and the community. Advocacy groups in our community have important ties to the commission’s work, and the relationship between the designated commissioners and their constituents supports and informs the important systemic advocacy and reform work that the commission delivers. This document therefore will provide a public statement of the services the community can expect from the commission and how they will be delivered.
Finally, the president will be required to develop an operations protocol in consultation with the other commissioners that will set up key internal processes to underpin collegiate and coherent performance of the functions of the commission. This will allow the commission to determine its own processes for the effective performance of its functions. As with the corporate and governance protocol, the commission will be required to publish its operations protocol on its website to ensure accountability and accessibility.
The bill therefore establishes simplified, consolidated appointment and delegation provisions that will also support the inclusion of the Victims of Crime Commissioner and Public Advocate in the commission.
The Public Advocate, who will also be appointed as the Children & Young People Commissioner, will perform a range of advocacy functions reflecting those currently contained in sections 11 and 12 of the Public Advocate Act 2005, which will be repealed by this bill. Advocacy functions of the Public Advocate relate to the advocacy of the rights of people with a disability and children and young people, including advocacy through the promotion of the provision of support, facilities, programs and services. The Victims of Crime Commissioner will exercise functions in relation to services for victims of crime and under the Domestic Violence Agencies Act 1986 as the domestic violence project coordinator, Victims of Crime Act 1994 and Victims of Crime (Financial Assistance) Act 1983.
The bill moves responsibility for handling complaints to the Disability & Community Services Commissioner, who will also be the Discrimination Commissioner and the Health Services Commissioner. This includes responsibility for handling children and young people complaints, complaints about matters in relation to which the Public Advocate and Victims of Crime Commissioner have functions, complaints about non-compliance with the victims of crime governing principles, and complaints about the actions of a guardian or manager. The operation protocol will cover the processes for handling and referring of complaints.
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