Select Committee hears submissions on Vulnerable Children Bill
Tue 03 Dec 2013
Parliament's Social Services Select Committee has begun hearing oral submissions on the Vulnerable Children Bill. Media coverage is listed below. ...
Parliament's Social Services Select Committee has begun hearing oral submissions on the Vulnerable Children Bill. Media coverage is listed below. Links will continue to be added to the page as they become available.
A submission by Bronwyn Kerr of the Sexual Abuse Help Foundation supported the proposed Child Harm Protection Orders, which aim to restrict contact with children for people considered at high risk of perpetrating abuse, even they have not been convicted. Kerr spoke of the difficulties in supporting children through the legal system and consequently the difficulties in successful prosecution. She said children who did testify "often froze in the courtroom or were aggressively discredited by defence lawyers, sometimes with their need for counselling used against them". Ms Kerr said "I believe where there is clear abuse something is needed in the interim to protect these children".
The New Zealand Law Society expressed concerns over the legal precedent of the proposed Child Harm Prevention Orders. Spokesperson Professor Bill Atkin said, "The legislation allows a person to be tagged with the stigma of having committed a serious offence on the basis of a significantly lower civil law standard of the balance of probabilities. That sets a very concerning precedent. The proper forum in which to decide whether a person has committed an offence is a criminal trial".
The Law Society also identified aspects of the bill that needed to be strengthened in order to achieve its goals. These included:
- providing a clear definition of 'vulnerable children';
- establishing the roles and jurisdictions of children's teams and vulnerable children's board within legislation to provide them with the legal authority for intervention;
- strengthening the framework for collaboration between government agencies by requiring children's ministers to consult with the Children's Commissioner; and
- auditing child protection policies across agencies for consistency.
A submission by Big Buddy Mentoring Trust Chief Executive Richard Aston supported the introduction of compulsory screening and vetting of an estimated 376,000 government employees working with children. Other submissions opposed the scheme, including the Royal Australasian College of Physicians which believes the screening and vetting of health professionals is an "inefficient use of limited resources when most abuse occurs in the child's home".
The submission by the Public Service Association said that while it is supportive of reducing the risk of harm to children, the proposed vetting legislation was not transparent enough, did not include balancing employment law protections for workers and did not require government departments to work together to produce a consistent approach. The PSA recommended a provision to allow workers to respond to negative information found about a worker or prospective worker. "One of the worries is that some workers may face unsubstantiated allegations which have not been proven, yet they may be forced out of work or denied employment," said Brenda Pilott, PSA National Secretary. The PSA also recommended the costs of screening and vetting should be legislated to the government, not organisations or the individual.
Other submissions voiced the concerned that the bill was too narrow and did not address the 'roots' of abuse, such as poverty and family violence. The report by the Social Services Committee on the Vulnerable Children Bill is due in March 2014.
Media:
Sexually abused children 'failed' by justice system, The Dominion Post, 2.12.2013
Call for national register when dealing with children, Radio NZ, 30.11.2013
Proposed safety check regime problematic - PSA, Voxy, 29.11.2013
Legislation to protect vulnerable children 'needs strengthening', Voxy, 29.11.2013
CYFs forces 17 year olds out onto the streets - Lole-Taylor, Voxy, 29.11.2013
Image: iStock