Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

in reply—I thank members for their contributions to the debate and I thank all members, including opposition members, for their support of the Crimes Amendment (Working With Children—Criminal History) Bill 2009. I appreciate the passion with which members have spoken about their desire to protect our children from abuse. The member for Indi suggested that penalties for child sex related offences should be increased. I recently released a discussion paper proposing a range of enhancements to Commonwealth child sex related offences, including increases in penalties for certain offences and the introduction of new higher penalty aggravated offences.

I would like to clarify the comments by member for Cowan about the reasons for taking into account pardoned and quashed convictions. A person whose conviction has been pardoned or quashed is held to be innocent of the offence with which he or she was charged and tried. Some members commented on the requirements for working with children checks in states and territories. This bill does not affect those existing requirements for individuals who work with children to obtain a check in the state and territory in which they are employed. The bill is designed to enhance the effectiveness of those checks by allowing the provision of a broader range of Commonwealth criminal history information to state and territory screening units that undertake child related employment screening.

Nevertheless, pardoned and quashed convictions may be relevant to an assessment of a person’s suitability to work with children because of the surrounding factual circumstances in the particular case. Protecting children from any form of abuse is a matter of utmost importance for this government. The statistics tell us that the risk of abuse to children is significant. This bill will enhance the mechanisms in place to ensure that people who work with children are properly vetted. The Council of Australian Governments recognised that the assessment of criminal history is an integral aspect in making decisions about whether a person may pose a risk to children.

The bill implements the COAG commitment to enable the interjurisdictional exchange of expanded criminal history information for people working with children. This bill will enable organisations conducting working with children checks to consider the full criminal history of a person. This includes considering non-conviction information such as court records. The bill includes stringent safeguards to ensure that the information is dealt with appropriately and to limit any potential misuse of the information. We must take all steps to protect our children. This bill will enhance our overall strategy for managing risks to the safety and wellbeing of children. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.

See this speech in context