I rise to speak on the Children Legislation Amendment Bill 2019, and I speak on this bill not only as the member for Tarneit but also as a mother of two primary school-aged children being raised in the Catholic faith and attending a Catholic school. Let me begin by saying that this bill implements changes that are long, long overdue, because what this bill is about is pretty simple: it is about keeping children safe. It is a bill stating that there is no excuse for not reporting the sexual assault of a child, and that when it comes to protecting our most vulnerable, nobody—nobody—gets a free pass.
I commend the Minister for Child Protection for the introduction of this bill, fulfilling the promise that this government made before the last election, a promise to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. I would also like to acknowledge the then Gillard federal government for instigating this investigation and Peter McClellan for chairing the royal commission and making these recommendations.
The findings of the royal commission are nothing short of horrendous. As a mother of two children it is hard to even comprehend the horrors that have been inflicted on our most vulnerable, our children, by trusted leaders within their own communities. They are crimes that should never have happened, crimes that could have been prevented. For too long privileges and protections that have been enjoyed by a select few out of line with community expectations have made it so difficult for Victorian authorities to apprehend perpetrators of this abuse.
The most important thing that this bill achieves is the removal of exemptions that prevent religious leaders from being mandatory reporters to child protection. As a result, when those in such a position hear confessions of abuse, they will now be compelled to report that abuse to the department of child protection. By amending the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 we remove the exemption from mandatory reporting for religious ministers. This is consistent with the same standards that we have set for our teachers, our police, our medical practitioners and our nurses when they are informed of child abuse.
In addition to this, the royal commission recommended expanding this obligation to out-of-home care workers, youth justice workers, early childhood educators, psychologists and school counsellors. Regulatory changes have already been made to ensure that all of these categories will become mandatory reporters by the beginning of next year, and now this bill adds religious leaders to that list. Furthermore, if any individuals in one of those professions fails to make a report of sexual abuse, it will now be an offence under the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005. This bill will make sure that religious ministers are held to the same standards as any other mandatory reporter and will incur an offence if they fail to disclose knowledge of any abuse.
This bill also amends the Crimes Act 1958 to remove exemptions on religious confessions from the failure to disclose offence. As it stands, section 327 of the Crimes Act stipulates a person of or over the age of 18 years who has information that leads the person to form a reasonable belief that a sexual offence has been committed in Victoria against a child under the age of 16 years by another person of or over the age of 18 years must disclose that information to a police officer as soon as it is practical to do so. This offence has a maximum penalty of three years imprisonment. Current laws include information obtained by religious ministers during religious confessions as a reasonable excuse for not doing so. This is in conjunction with amending the Evidence Act 2008 to remove the religious confessions privilege so that it does not apply to proceedings involving the failure to disclose offence of failure to make a mandatory report to child protection.
These two amendments will enforce the mandatory obligations for religious leaders to report information told to them during confessions. As a result religious leaders will incur an offence under both acts and will not be able to rely on exemptions under the Evidence Act 2008 to defend them. These changes make it very clear that if you conceal information about child abuse imparted to you during confession, you will be breaking the law. While religious ministers accused of failing to report abuse will still be able to try and defend themselves in proceedings and be protected from incriminating themselves, the removal of these exemptions mean that they will no longer be able to invoke religious privilege.
Much has been said over the introduction of this bill. Some among the opposition have begrudged it as an affront to religious freedom while others have derided it as virtue signalling. I find this personally abhorrent. There are those that also claim that mandatory reporting will mean perpetrators will not confess to committing the abuse. What I believe they fail to see is that the current system does not work. We know it does not work because for far too long information confessed by perpetrators of child abuse have been protected as confidential. What that has said is that the rights of perpetrators to confess take precedence over a child’s right to feel protected, to feel safe and to be safe. This bill is about this government thinking otherwise. It is about the rights of children to be protected, which must always come first and above all else. We in this chamber have a moral obligation to protect our children in our communities and change laws when necessary to do so.
In addition to laws surrounding criminal offences this bill also makes changes to the Limitation of Actions Act 1958 to empower the courts to set aside certain judgements and settlement agreements concluded after the expiry of a limitation period. This continues the efforts made by the Andrews Labor government to remove civil litigation barriers for abuse survivors. We know that it takes an average of 22 years. At 38 years of age, for me 22 years feel like practically a lifetime. It is a lifetime for survivors of child abuse to come forward and report it. We know that there is a severe power imbalance between those survivors and the institutions that perpetrated the abuse. The barriers that were in place often meant that victims were forced to settle on inadequate terms. This bill aims to ensure that the court is able to set aside these settlements and judgements.
In order to protect children this bill seeks to amend the Working with Children Act 2005 to limit the appeal rights of serious offenders. This act provides for working with children checks to vet and screen people looking to work in child-related industries. These checks are crucial to ensuring that children are safe from predatory behaviour, whether it be in their schools, hospitals or youth centres. This bill will further strengthen these protections by limiting the right for those who have had a working with children check refused to them to appeal that decision at VCAT. What we have learned from the royal commission is that people found guilty of perpetrating serious offences against children will always be a threat to a child’s safety. That is why these changes are so important. If someone is going to be refused a working with children check, in most cases it is for a very, very good reason.
This bill is also going to address the health needs of children in out-of-home care by allowing the secretary to give consent for children to undergo medical treatment under a Children’s Court order, where that child is placed in a secure welfare service. All children deserve access to medical treatment, and this bill will ensure children who are placed with carers can get the routine medical care and immunisations without having to jump through hoops.
This bill is also going to allow the secretary to authorise protection orders for non-Aboriginal siblings of Aboriginal children who have also been authorised under the Aboriginal Children in Aboriginal Care Program. This is going to ensure that when Aboriginal children enter into this care program they are not separated from their brothers and sisters.
This bill is going to ensure that Victoria has some of the strongest and most comprehensive child protection laws in this country. We owe it to the survivors of child sexual abuse to do what we can to ensure that the horrors they survived never, never happen again. Religious ministers must be held to account for protecting the identities of child abusers. This government’s priorities are clear: when it comes to protecting children, children take precedence every time.
