Children and Young People (Oversight and Advocacy Bodies) (Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee) Amendment Bill – Second Reading speech
Thursday 14 November 2024
S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (16:55): I rise to speak on the Children and Young People (Oversight and Advocacy Bodies) (Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee) Amendment Bill 2024. At its core, this bill is about preventing death and serious injury for South Australians. Any death or injury is always one too many, and I concur with other speakers on this bill with regard to how terrified we would all be if this happened to one of our own and what it would do to the community that surrounds us. I, too, have terrible intrusive thoughts about what might happen one day to my children. It does not matter that they are now adults, living their own lives; those thoughts still remain.
The Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee was established in 2006, and its functions under the act are:
(a) to review cases in which children die or suffer serious injury with a view to identifying legislative or administrative means of preventing similar cases of death or serious injury in the future; and
(b) to make, and monitor the implementation of, recommendations for avoiding preventable child death or serious injury; and
(c) to maintain a database of child deaths and serious injuries and their circumstances and causes.
This bill seeks to give the committee more flexibility as to when it can commence a review into a particular child death or serious injury. Currently, provisions of the Children and Young People (Oversight and Advocacy Bodies) Act 2016 place limitations on the circumstances in which a review by the committee of a child's death or serious injury can commence, and those limitations, I suspect, must endure heartache.
Subsection 37(5) in particular provides that the committee must not review a case of child death or serious injury unless a coronial inquiry has been completed, or the State Coroner requests the committee to carry out a review, or the State Coroner indicates that there is no present intention to carry out a coronial inquiry. This results in a significant amount of time passing after a child's death or serious injury before the committee can start its review and, no doubt, before families can even consider closure.
The Malinauskas Labor government believes there is a crucial role for the Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee in helping to prevent death and serious injury. It is for that reason that the committee should have the opportunity, with appropriate checks and balances, to review deaths and serious injuries earlier. However, it is important that safeguards are also put in place as not to compromise an existing investigation, inquiry or inquest. These include:
1. Requiring that in such a case the committee consult with the State Coroner or the Commissioner of Police, as the case requires;
2. Providing that the committee must take all reasonable steps to avoid compromising the inquest, inquiry or investigation; and
3. Enabling the Coroner or the commissioner to give directions to the committee as to the things they should or should not do in the course of the review if the Coroner or the commissioner is of the opinion that such a direction is necessary to avoid compromise to an inquest, inquiry or investigation.
These are sensible provisions, whilst also providing the opportunity for earlier recommendations to prevent future deaths and serious injury of children and young people.
The bill also ensures appropriate protections of information held by the committee. This is important, as the committee must be able to go about its work independently and without fear. The bill includes additional provisions for the protection of information held by the committee, including providing that a person cannot be compelled to:
1. Give evidence of matters becoming known to them as a member or staff of the committee;
2. Produce a document that was prepared or made in the course of or for the purposes of a review of a case of a child death or serious injury through the work of the committee; or
3. Provide information that became known to them in the course of a review.
This does not mean that the committee cannot choose to provide information, but it is not compelled to do so. While the committee is currently an exempt agency for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act 1991, the bill further provides that a document prepared by the committee will be an exempt document for the purposes of the act, including where it is held by or in the possession of an agency other than the committee. There is a current gap in the act that the government believes is important to resolve.
Overall, these changes are sensible and centred around the government doing more to protect children and young people. We are committed to listening and making ongoing improvements to ensure every child and young person is able to live safely and able to thrive. This bill delivers on this ambition. I commend the bill to the house.
