Child Protection Minister Robyn McSweeney today announced amendments to the Working with Children (Criminal Record Checking) Act 2004 that aimed to close current loopholes related to Working with Children Cards.
The amendments would strengthen the current Act and seek to exclude people with criminal histories that indicate they may harm a child, from starting or continuing child-related work, regardless if it is paid or voluntary.
“I made a commitment prior to and during the 2008 election campaign that amendments were necessary to the Act as they would address key issues that have arisen since the Working with Children (Criminal Record Checking) Act came into effect on January 1, 2006,” Mrs McSweeney said.
There will be additional sexual offences added to current Class 1 Schedule offences, including:
· sexual penetration without consent
· aggravated sexual penetration without consent
· sexual coercion
· aggravated sexual coercion.
committed when a child is under the age of 13 and the offender is an adult.
“These offences were not included when the Act came into effect in 2006 and it was obvious they should have been as they are offences that have a devastating and lasting impact on victims.
“The amendments to the Act will be before State Parliament this month and will bring the child into central focus. Where people who have committed offences of risk that target children, they will be denied access to a Working with Children Card.”
Additional improvements will also see the capacity to receive and act on notifications by the Police Commissioner of non-scheduled offences, where persons have a change in criminal record and can no longer be undertaking child-related work. This new amendment seeks to cancel the card and create penalties if not returned.
The Minister said the director of the Working with Children Unit would require a person who was due to be issued a negative notice to advise why they should not be issued with a negative notice.
This submission would be taken into account by the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) if the applicant appealed the negative notice, even if offences were more than 20-years-old. The offence committed would be taken into account by SAT, together with a victim impact statement, to ascertain what impact the offence would have on a child if the applicant re-offended.
Minister's office - 9222 8950