Dr WOODRUFF – Can you detail, please, all of the outstanding, yet to be fully implemented, recommendations from the royal commission into institutional child sex abuse?
Ms ARCHER – We might stand down Mr Shepherd, unless there is anything further. Thank you. Of the 409 recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, 304 relate to the Tasmanian Government. Of these 304 recommendations, 214 have been completed, 77 have commenced, 12 are for consideration and one has not yet commenced.
This year, my department has progressed the implementation of a further 22 royal commission recommendations by implementing legislation to establish a Child and Youth Safe Organisations Framework in Tasmania. That introduces Child and Youth Safe Standards and a Reportable Conduct Scheme across all organisations delivering services to children and young people in Tasmania. We have implemented legislative reform that reforms tendency and coincidence laws, consistent with the model bill agreed by the then Council of Attorneys-General, now the Standing Council of Attorneys-General, or SCAG.
We have introduced a new crime of failing to protect a child within a relevant institution from a substantial risk of sexual abuse by an adult associated with the institution. We have introduced a new crime of penetrative sexual abuse of a child or young person by a person in a position of authority if that person is in a position of authority in relation to a child and that person has sexual intercourse with that child.
We have also ensured that all child sexual offence charges are not subject to a limitation period. With respect to that one, that has been significant and life changing to a lot of victims/survivors. I have had a lot of feedback about that, and feedback that has moved me greatly as Attorney-General and reminds me every day why I do this role. I will leave it at that because that one really means a lot to me.
There are 13 recommendations that have not been progressed at this stage. Where possible, the scoping and analysis work is underway to ensure these recommendations can be effectively implemented in Tasmania to achieve the intended outcomes, which is to protect the safety of Tasmania’s children. Of these, 12 recommendations are reported as for consideration, two that are contained in the Final Report and 10 in the Criminal Justice Report. These are recommendation 12.9, which relates to Tasmania’s implementation of the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse; recommendation 14.4, which relates to independent state and territory oversight bodies implementing the Child Safe Standards establishing a free email subscription function – this recommendation relates to the sport and recreation sector and will be considered with the progression of the Child and Youth Safe Organisations Framework; recommendations 23 and 24 of the Criminal Justice Reports, which relate to the course of conduct charges and will be considered following the release of the commission of inquiry’s final report; recommendation 52 of the Criminal Justice Report, which relates to a child’s competency to give evidence and requires amendments to uniform evidence laws, which requires consideration by SCAG and specifically, jurisdictions with uniform evidence laws, as with Tasmania.
Bear with me, recommendations 64, 65 and 66 of the Criminal Justice Report, which relate to judicial directions and will be considered following the release of the commission of inquiry’s report. Recommendations 70 and 71 of the Criminal Justice Report similarly involve the processes of the courts and so will be impacted by the release of the commission of inquiry’s final report. Recommendations 79 and 80 of the Criminal Justice Report relate to interlocutory appeals and will be considered following the commission of inquiry’s final report.
The one recommendation reported as not commenced is recommendation 13.2 from the final report, which relates to delegating independent oversight authority of the Child Safe Standards to school registration authorities. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the Office of the Education Registrar. This recommendation has been considered and requires cross-departmental engagement and also may be impacted by the commission of inquiry’s final report.
I have gone to that in great detail because it is very easy to criticise the department for not yet addressing some of the recommendations, but these latter ones that are in the consideration stage do require significant additional work and scoping to be able to comply. I have also mentioned the reform that we have done this year and late last year has been significant in the legislation that I have taken through the House.
Dr WOODRUFF – Nonetheless, that is 89 that are the responsibility of Attorney-General and Justice that have not been finalized, which is nearly one-third of the royal commission’s recommendations. It is just under a third.
Ms ARCHER – In the space of a few years, we have done 214. I think that is significant.
Dr WOODRUFF – Yes, I know, but it has been a long time since the royal commission handed down its finding. What is the time line for having completed the 89 that were in your jurisdiction? When will they be done?
Ms ARCHER – I might get the secretary to address that. I really don’t accept the premise of that allegation that we haven’t been addressing these things. The workload of these things has been –
Dr WOODRUFF – I didn’t say that. I said it was a long time.
Ms ARCHER – No, I know you didn’t say it, but you are implying it because of the length of time. I think over that space of time, to have addressed 214 of the recommendations, most of which have required legislation or regulation or scoping, has been significant.
Ms WEBSTER – In terms of the remaining recommendations, I think we do need to wait until the handing down of the commission of inquiry report because some of those, as the Attorney-General outlined, do relate to some of those recommendations. As I said earlier, there needs to be a prioritisation of all of that work that is most important in keeping children safe. What is the highest priority of those ones that we need to do? That is work that we will be doing once the commission of inquiry hands down its report.
