Page 1352 - Week 04 - Thursday, 4 April 2019
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The work in the schools for all initiative has a very particular focus but is an important part of dealing with some of the issues that arise around students with special needs, ensuring that they and also the school communities get the support and safety that they need. There is also, of course, the work happening through the WorkSafe undertaking. That is more targeted at occupational violence for teachers, but these issues and some of the broad social issues that are arising around an increase in violence are all blended together in one form or another. We need to think of them as a package.
The minister has proposed this reference to the committee. It is evident that, as a result of the petition that was presented, the committee could also have made this decision itself. I do not think those things matter too much. The committee is now going to have a look at that, and we would be pleased to see that happen. Certainly, there is a debate about the best way to examine it, and this goes to some of the comments that Ms Lee was making at the end of her observations.
There have been extensive discussions in recent days, particularly about how we best do that and how we find the right balance of transparency without unnecessary public exposure for people who might be vulnerable, people who perhaps do not want to be in the public domain, and also how we manage those people who perhaps want to take the public domain as an opportunity to prosecute matters further. I think that all these things are difficult and tricky considerations.
What I do know is that there is generally a view that we want to ensure that individuals are not unduly exposed to public humiliation, to public scrutiny, in a way that is unfair to them. The key topic of conversation in the last few days has been: if we agree on those broad principles, how do we accurately reflect that in the text? There has been quite a bit of back and forth. We have had various versions of the text. Ultimately the Greens have formed the view that we will settle on the revised text that is in the current notice paper and that Minister Berry has put forward.
On balance—and there is a discussion about whether this is unduly directed to the committee—I think the Assembly can express a view to the committee. That is the view that we are putting in supporting the text as it is currently—that is, that we think it is right that, as is pointed out in (2)(e), the potential negative consequences for individual children, their families, staff and schools have been identified. That is the area of concern. In (3), where that potential negative consequence arises, it states that the committee “take its evidence in camera and hold documents on a confidential basis”. I think that is the right balance. I think it is right for the Assembly to express our views on that matter. Certainly for the Greens, as we are not on that committee, this Assembly is the appropriate place and this debate is the time for us to express that view.
I will also say to the committee that there have been some discussions over the last few days about the potential for the Children and Young People Commissioner to provide some advice in this space. I certainly I spoke to her yesterday, as part of my thinking on this on how we might approach it. I think it would be not unreasonable for me to represent her view that she is willing to act as an adviser to the committee, if
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