Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Regional Development and Territories) Share this | Hansard source

I present the revised explanatory memorandum to this bill and move:

That this bill now be read a second time.

The Australian government takes the violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability very seriously.

All forms of violence against, and abuse, neglect and exploitation of, people with disability are abhorrent.

This is why the government committed $527.9 million for this royal commission, which includes funding to support people with disability to participate in the royal commission. The success of this commission is important for ensuring better outcomes for people with disability now and into the future.

The Royal Commissions Amendment (Protection of Information) Bill 2021 introduces explicit confidentiality protections for sensitive information being given to the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.

It implements the changes which have been requested by the Chair of the Disability Royal Commission, the Hon. Ronald Sackville AO QC. The protections have also been requested by people with disability, in support of the chair's request, and a range of disability advocates.

Expanded confidentiality protections in the bill will ensure that people with disability have the confidence to fully engage and tell their story to the disability royal commission without fear of reprisal or future disclosure of their personal sensitive information. The protections will be extended to cover situations where information is given to the royal commission on behalf of another person and also to cover accounts of systemic violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation.

When the royal commission ends, its records will be held by the Australian government Attorney-General's Department. Upon transfer, some of those records may then be sought under court-issued subpoenas or other compulsory processes, or be the subject of freedom of information requests unless exemptions or protections apply.

The chair of the royal commission has said to the government that people with disability, their families, and supporters, among others, do not feel confident that the information they provide to the royal commission can remain confidential after the royal commission ends. These amendments will strengthen the existing protections in the act, and remove any doubt about the safeguarding of confidential information beyond the life of the inquiry.

The royal commission's letters patent stipulate that people with disability are central to processes that inform best practice decision-making on what all Australian governments and others can do to prevent and respond to violence against, and abuse, neglect and exploitation of, people with disability. Ensuring they are heard in this inquiry is key.

The government has listened to the royal commission, and people with disability, their families and carers, and the broader Australian public, about the importance of ensuring people have the confidence to come forward and tell their story.

Existing protections in the royal commissions act

For many people with disability, and their families and carers, telling their story to the royal commission may be the first time in their lives they have disclosed their experiences of violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation.

For others, it's the first time their story has been heard by someone in a position of authority.

People telling their stories to the royal commission need to know there are existing protections in the act, and that the government is doing more to expressly set out these comprehensive protections for personal information both during the life of the royal commission and after its conclusion.

The amendments will build upon the strong protections that already apply to royal commissions whilst an inquiry is underway. This includes providing for private sessions, the use of pseudonyms in public hearings and published material and through the making of non-publication directions. All of these allow for identities and other information to be protected.

This bill will ensure that people with disability have an extra layer of confidence to engage with the royal commission with certainty that their information will be protected.

We want people to come forward and tell the royal commission what has happened to them, and what they've seen.

Operation of confidentiality provisions

The bill amends the act to ensure that confidentiality of certain information given by, or on behalf of individuals, to the disability royal commission by applying limitations on the use and disclosure of information given by individuals to the royal commission about their, or others, experiences of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation, where that information was given for purposes other than a private session and the information was treated as confidential by the commission at all times.

Private sessions were first established for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (the child sexual abuse royal commission) to enable individuals to tell their story about matters into which the commission was inquiring in a trauma informed and less formal setting than a hearing. These private session records are already fully protected after the inquiry ends, but this bill will extend these important protections to other categories of sensitive information.

Private sessions are an important mechanism that enable individuals to share highly sensitive and personal information in confidence, which is why the government is seeking to extend those protections to individuals engaging with the disability royal commission who are providing individual or systemic accounts of violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation on a confidential basis.

Individuals have and will provide sensitive and highly personal information outside of a private sessions to the disability royal commission, expecting that it will be kept confidential.

In practice, information about an individual's experience can be received and recorded by a commission outside of a private session. For example, by providing confidential written submissions and accounts, or through interview processes where the royal commission needs to be satisfied that the matters fall within the terms of the inquiry or they need to discuss potential giving of evidence.

This information should properly receive protections similar to private session information, and this is what this bill will achieve.

The proposed new clause 6OP would provide that confidential information is not admissible in evidence against a natural person in any civil or criminal proceedings in any court of the Commonwealth, of a state or of a territory. Further, a provision of a law of the Commonwealth, a state or a territory would have no effect to the extent that it would otherwise require or authorise a person to make a record of, use or disclose the information.

Proposed amendments to section 60E will expand the application of the existing protections in the act to cover circumstances where information is given to the disability royal commission by a person on behalf of another person—for example, where a carer or parent gives information on behalf of a person with a cognitive or severe disability. In these circumstances, both the person with the disability and the person giving information on their behalf would be protected.

The disability royal commission may hear accounts of systemic violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disabilities, not just individual accounts, including accounts which indirectly identify a person. This could include information a person knows about policies, procedures, practices, acts or omissions that may have contributed to a person experiencing violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation.

See this speech in context