Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

The difficulty I see with this is that you are asking the Senate to vote against a proposition that there should be mandatory reporting of child abuse. I see it that these children are in our care. In fact, I think everybody in a detention centre is vulnerable, but children are even more vulnerable. Again, given some of the historic problems that we have raised—covering things up and making it difficult for people to feel that they can report some of these things—and given the nature of the secrecy that surrounds these detention centres—why doesn't the government think that it is appropriate that, at the first opportunity, regardless of what you say about whether this is the appropriate bill or not, this bill could include those provisions. Why isn't the government moving to ensure that there should be mandatory reporting of child abuse?