On 23 May this year, Premier Rockliff delivered a ministerial statement promising the parliament that 44 of the 48 Commission of Inquiry Phase 1 recommendations would be completed by 1 July.
It is extremely disappointing to see that, in the space of a little over a month, the Rockliff government has failed to meet even this reset, reduced target, having only completed 42 recommendations by 2 July.
Among the recommendations not yet complete are:
- Provide one-off funding for implementation of out-of-home-care recommendations, and increased ongoing out-of-home care funding (9.1),
- Introduce changes to professional conduct policies and for all agency staff who provide services to children prohibiting child sexual abuse, grooming and boundary violations and outlining what is acceptable conduct (20.2),
- Introduce legislation to extend professional conduct policies to contractors, sub-contractors, volunteers, and other adults who have contact with children (20.4),
- Properly establish a statutory Commission for Children and Young People with all the powers it needs to function effectively (18.6),
- Properly resource the Commission for Children and Young People and embedding the functions of the Independent Regulator in the legislation, and ensuring the Commission has access to government systems held by Tasmania Police, Child Safety Services, and the Registrar for Working with Vulnerable People scheme (18.4),
- Provide guidance to the public about how the Commission for Children and Young People and the Registrar of the Working with Vulnerable People Scheme, the Ombudsman and the Integrity Commission can assist with complaints about child sexual abuse (18.14), and
- Introduce legislation and regulations to replace the Administrative Appeals Division of the Magistrate’s Court with the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal as the forum for administrative review decisions under the Registration to Work with Vulnerable People Act 2013 (18.13).
There have also been changes to the way progress is tracked on the website that complicates transparency.
Previous versions of the website had a colour-coded tracker which made it visually obvious where progress had stalled. The site has reverted to a list of recommendations with no easy, visual way to track where progress has fallen short.
Some measures not yet completed relate to funding and Premier Rockliff must confirm that they will be fully addressed in the State Budget.
The recommendations by the Commission of Inquiry included 9 recommendations for legislative change in Phase 1.
The Rockliff government has introduced only 7 of these 9 legislative changes in the last two sitting weeks of parliament.
It takes time to pass legislation, and this needless delay in bringing legislation forward for the parliament to consider seems to undermine the intention of the recommendations to protect children and young people as soon as possible.
This is only Phase 1 of the implementation, covering 48 out of 196 recommendations. The failure to complete even all of the non-budgetary recommendations in Phase 1 does not bode well for Phase 2 and Phase 3.
The government has already pushed out the recommended closure of the Ashley Youth Detention Centre, pushed back the Budget for their early election and failed to implement even Premier Rockliff’s reduced target of 44 recommendations by 1 July.
How many more recommendations are already delayed as we progress to Phase 2 and 3 recommendations?
