Dr WOODRUFF – All right. I’ll talk about that then. Can I ask you another question in relation to child sex offences and the discussions that have been in public about the sex offenders register? Not all offenders on the sex offenders register are for child sex offences. Is there a risk of false alarms being raised if the whole register was released?
Ms ARCHER – Firstly, the whole register isn’t released. It is not the plan to release it. That is certainly not the intention of what has been announced at all.
Dr WOODRUFF – Isn’t that what the police minister is pointing to?
Ms ARCHER – Absolutely not.
Dr WOODRUFF – Are you concerned about the risks of vigilantism, and the potential kind of negative consequences for disclosing that information about –
Ms ARCHER – Can I be exceptionally clear? It is not for the public release of the full register. The intention of the policy that minister Ellis has announced – we don’t even have a draft bill in place to go out for consultation on – my department would work very closely with his department.
The policy is to enable agencies – i.e. departments – to share information. In cases where it will be warranted – and again, we need to work out safeguards in place – where, such as in the example that minister Ellis gave, where a mother starts a new relationship, and someone will be spending time with her children, and she wishes to know the background of that person. I would imagine, and I will certainly be providing this input, that this will be done discreetly and with safeguards in place.
I will make it very clear. It is not going to be a situation where we would have the public release of the sex offenders register. We know that, yes, that could or would lead to vigilantism – and that is certainly what I would want to prevent in any given situation.
That is why I have said it’s really important that my department works with the Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management on this.
