Page 4477 - Week 12 - Thursday, 26 October 2017
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The terms of reference for the legislative review required the following issues to be considered: whether the operation of the act was fit for purpose, whether the scope of the scheme is appropriate and the regulatory burden is proportionate for protecting vulnerable people, whether the resources allocated to administer the act are sufficient for the scheme to operate appropriately and whether amendments to the act are needed to improve its operation and administration.
Another key consideration of the review has been to respond to the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Working with Children Checks report. Key recommendations coming out the royal commission’s work are for jurisdictions to harmonise their approach to working with children checks. The ACT has been engaging with all jurisdictions to progress this work. Increased information-sharing between jurisdictions is an important first step towards harmonisation.
Current legislation prevents information-sharing between jurisdictions and the legislative review has recommended to proceed with changes to the act to enable the development of cross-jurisdictional information-sharing provisions. The recommendation to enable the act to share information will prepare the territory for a national approach to sharing and receiving information in relation to background checks for children, noting the ACT’s scheme has a broader remit for vulnerable people.
Many of the recommendations of this legislative review position the ACT to deliver on the royal commission’s recommendations where no national agreement is required. These changes will be pursued, noting that information-sharing will be enabled once a governance protocol is developed that reflects agreed arrangements between jurisdictions. National harmonisation of working with children checks requires national agreement, and changes to the act will be required in the future. These further changes will be brought forward as part of the second legislative review required under the act following its seventh year of operation.
The review was overseen by an inter-directorate committee comprising the Community Services Directorate, Access Canberra, and the Health, Education, Justice and Community Safety and Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development directorates.
Community and stakeholder engagement was undertaken to inform the legislative review. The Nous Group was engaged to conduct a series of stakeholder consultations and a subsequent targeted survey, distributed via peak organisations. This was undertaken to elicit further feedback from the business community and from vulnerable people and their carers. The findings and issues identified as part of stakeholder consultation have informed the recommendations of the legislative review.
There are 26 recommendations for legislative amendments proposed in this review across five themes. These themes are: increasing protections for vulnerable people, strengthening information-sharing capabilities, relieving administrative burden to
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