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This is a Bill, not an Act. For current law, see the Acts databases.
Western Australia
Children and Community Services (Mandatory
Reporting) Amendment Bill 2006
CONTENTS
Part 1 -- Preliminary
1. Short title 2
2. Commencement 2
Part 2 -- Amendment of Children
and Community Services Act 2004
3. The Act amended 3
4. Division 1A inserted 3
Division 1A -- Prevention and reporting
of harm to children
30A. Responsibilities of adults in relation to
harm to children 3
30B. Responsibilities of prescribed persons in
relation to harm to children 4
30C. Records of reports and subsequent action 5
30D. Protection from liability of persons who
make reports 6
30E. Confidentiality of persons who make
reports 6
30F. Chief Executive Officer's investigations
and assessment 8
30G. Defnitions in section 28 apply to this
Division 9
162--1 page i
Western Australia
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY
(Introduced by Mr Omodei, MLA)
Children and Community Services (Mandatory
Reporting) Amendment Bill 2006
A Bill for
An Act to amend the Children and Community Services Act 2004 to
provide for mandatory reporting of harm, or suspected harm, to
children by abuse or neglect.
The Parliament of Western Australia enacts as follows:
page 1
Children and Community Services (Mandatory Reporting) Amendment Bill
2006
Part 1 Preliminary
s. 1
Part 1 -- Preliminary
1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Children and Community Services
(Mandatory Reporting) Amendment Act 2006.
5 2. Commencement
This Act comes into operation on a day fixed by proclamation.
page 2
Children and Community Services (Mandatory Reporting) Amendment Bill
2006
Amendment of Children and Community Services Act 2004 Part 2
s. 3
Part 2 -- Amendment of Children and Community
Services Act 2004
3. The Act amended
The amendments in this Part are to the Children and Community
5 Services Act 2004.
4. Division 1A inserted
After section 30 the following Division is inserted --
"
Division 1A -- Prevention and reporting of harm to children
10 30A. Responsibilities of adults in relation to harm to
children
(1) An adult who knows, or believes or suspects on
reasonable grounds, that a child has suffered, or is
likely to suffer, harm as a result of any one or more of
15 the following:
(a) physical abuse;
(b) sexual abuse;
(c) emotional abuse;
(d) psychological abuse; or
20 (e) neglect
has a responsibility to take steps to prevent the
occurrence or further occurrence of the harm.
(2) One step a person with a responsibility under
subsection (1), not being a person to whom section 30B
25 applies, may take is to report his or her knowledge,
belief or suspicion to the Chief Executive Officer or a
police officer, as soon as practicable after gaining such
knowledge, belief or suspicion.
page 3
Children and Community Services (Mandatory Reporting) Amendment Bill
2006
Part 2 Amendment of Children and Community Services Act 2004
s. 4
30B. Responsibilities of prescribed persons in relation to
harm to children
(1) In this section --
"prescribed person" means --
5 (a) a person who, in the course of his or her
professional work or other paid employment
delivers health care, welfare, education,
children's services, residential services, or
law enforcement, wholly or partly, to
10 children; and
(b) a person who holds a management position
in an organisation the duties of which
include direct responsibility for, or direct
supervision of, the provision of health care,
15 welfare, education, children's services,
residential services, or law enforcement,
wholly or partly, to children.
(2) If a prescribed person:
(a) knows, or believes or suspects on reasonable
20 grounds, that a child has suffered, or is likely to
suffer, harm as a result of any one or more of
the following:
(i) physical abuse;
(ii) sexual abuse;
25 (iii) emotional abuse;
(iv) psychological abuse; or
(v) neglect; and
(b) such knowledge or grounds were acquired
during the course of or from the person's work
30 the person must report his or her knowledge, belief or
suspicion the Chief Executive Officer as soon as
practicable after gaining such knowledge, belief or
suspicion.
page 4
Children and Community Services (Mandatory Reporting) Amendment Bill
2006
Amendment of Children and Community Services Act 2004 Part 2
s. 4
(3) A person who fails to make a report to the Chief
Executive Officer Officer in accordance with
subsection (2) commits an offence.
Penalty: $12 000.
5 (4) Whether a person makes a report to the Chief
Executive Officer under subsection (2) verbally or in
writing, the person must include in the report a
statement of the observations, information, opinions
and other grounds upon which the knowledge, belief or
10 suspicion is based.
(5) It is a defence to a charge for an offence against
subsection (3) if the person charged can prove that he
or she honestly and reasonably believed that the Chief
Executive Officer had been informed by another person
15 of the knowledge, belief or suspicion to which the
charge relates.
30C. Records of reports and subsequent action
The Chief Executive Officer must keep a written
20 record of:
(a) all reports made to him or her under sections
30A(2) or 30B(2);
(b) any action taken as a consequence of any such
report, and
25 (c) any subsequent disposition of and dealings with
children to whom any such report relates.
page 5
Children and Community Services (Mandatory Reporting) Amendment Bill
2006
Part 2 Amendment of Children and Community Services Act 2004
s. 4
30D. Protection from liability of persons who make
reports
A person who makes a report to the Chief Executive
Officer under section 30A(2) or 30B(2), or to a police
5 officer under section 30A(2), or who provides any
further information to the Chief Executive Officer or to
a police officer in respect of any such report --
(a) cannot, by virtue of doing so, be held to have
breached any code of professional etiquette or
10 ethics, or to have departed from any accepted
form of professional conduct; and
(b) insofar as he or she has acted in good faith,
incurs no civil or criminal liability in respect
of --
15 (i) so informing the Chief Executive
Officer or a police officer; or
(ii) the provision of further information to
the Chief Executive Officer or a police
officer.
20 30E. Confidentiality of persons who make reports
(1) In this section --
"court" includes a court exercising federal jurisdiction;
"notification" means a report to the Chief Executive
Officer under section 30A(2) or 30B(2), or to a
25 police officer under section 30A(2), and the
provision of any further information to the Chief
Executive Officer or to a police officer in respect
of any such report;
"notifier" means a person who provides the Chief
30 Executive Officer or a police officer with a
notification.
page 6
Children and Community Services (Mandatory Reporting) Amendment Bill
2006
Amendment of Children and Community Services Act 2004 Part 2
s. 4
(2) Subject to this section, a person who receives a
notification from a notifier, or who otherwise becomes
aware of the identity of a notifier because he or she is
engaged in the administration of this Act, must not
5 disclose the identity of the notifier to any other person
unless the disclosure --
(a) is made in the course of official duties under
this Act to another person acting in the course
of official duties; or
10 (b) is made with the consent of the notifier; or
(c) is made by way of evidence adduced with leave
granted by a court under subsection (3).
Penalty: $24 000 and imprisonment for 2 years.
(3) Evidence as to the identity of a notifier, or from which
15 the identity of the notifier could be deduced, must not
be adduced in proceedings before any court without
leave of that court.
(4) Unless a court grants leave under subsection (3), a
party or witness in the proceedings must not be asked,
20 and, if asked, cannot be required to answer, any
question that cannot be answered without disclosing
the identity of, or leading to the identification of, the
notifier.
(5) A court cannot grant leave under subsection (3)
25 unless --
(a) that court is satisfied that the evidence is of
critical importance in the proceedings and that
failure to admit it would prejudice the proper
administration of justice; or
30 (b) the notifier consents to the admission of the
evidence in the proceedings.
page 7
Children and Community Services (Mandatory Reporting) Amendment Bill
2006
Part 2 Amendment of Children and Community Services Act 2004
s. 4
(6) An application to a court for leave to adduce evidence
under subsection (3) --
(a) must not, except as authorised by that court, be
heard and determined in public; and
5 (b) must be conducted in a manner which protects,
as far as may be practicable, the identity of the
notifier pending the determination of the
application; and
(c) must not be heard until sufficient notice has
10 been given to the Chief Executive Officer in the
case of a report to the Chief Executive Officer
under section 30A(2) or 30(B)(2) or the
Commissioner of Police in the case of a report
to a police officer under section 30A(2) to
15 allow the Chief Executive Officer's
representative, or the Commissioner of Police's
representative, to be present.
(7) The Freedom of Information Act 1992 does not apply
to the identity of a notifier or any information
20 contained in or relating to a notification that may lead
to the identification of the notifier.
30F. Chief Executive Officer's investigations and
assessment
On receipt of a report under section 30A(2) or 30B(2)
25 the Chief Executive Officer:
(a) is to make such investigations and assessment
as the Chief Executive Officer considers
necessary to determine whether the child is at
risk of harm, or
30 (b) may decide to take no further action if the Chief
Executive Officer is satisfied that:
page 8
Children and Community Services (Mandatory Reporting) Amendment Bill
2006
Amendment of Children and Community Services Act 2004 Part 2
s. 4
(i) the child has not suffered harm, or is not
likely to suffer harm, of the kind
reported; or
(ii) proper arrangements exist for the care
5 and protection of the child that
adequately address the reported harm
suffered, or likely to be suffered, by the
child.
30G. Defnitions in section 28 apply to this Division
10 In this Division --
"harm" has the same meaning as in section 28(1) of
this Act;
"neglect" has the same meaning as in section 28(1) of
this Act.
15 ".
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