Explanatory Memorandum
(Circulated by authority of the Minister for for Home Affairs, the Honourable Brendan O'Connor MP)General outline and financial impact statement
General outline
The Bill contains amendments to Part VIIC of the Crimes Act 1914 (Crimes Act). Part VIIC governs the disclosure and non-disclosure of pardons, quashed and spent convictions. Part VIIC provides that a person whose conviction is 'spent', pardoned or quashed does not have to disclose the fact of the conviction, and prohibits others from disclosing the conviction without the person's consent and from taking it into account. The amendments would create an exception for convictions of persons who work, or seek to work, with children so that those convictions can be disclosed to and taken into account by Commonwealth, State and Territory screening agencies in determining whether the person is suitable to work with children.
In particular, the amendments:
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- Repeal the existing exclusions in Division 6 which relates to the disclosure of spent convictions information in relation to the care, instruction or supervision of minors.
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- Replace the existing exclusions with new exclusions which allow the disclosure of information:
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- about a person's spent, quashed and pardoned convictions,
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- to or by a prescribed person or body permitted or required by or under a prescribed law to obtain and deal with information about persons who work, or seek to work, with children, and
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- for the purpose of obtaining or dealing with such information in accordance with the prescribed law.
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- Define 'child' and 'work' for the purposes of the new exclusions.
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- Specify criteria that screening units must meet before they can be prescribed to enable them to obtain and deal with Commonwealth criminal history information. These criteria reflect the requirements of the COAG agreement and include compliance with applicable privacy, human rights and records management legislation, natural justice principles and implementation of risk assessment frameworks.
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- Require the Minister for Home Affairs to cause a review of the operation of the new provisions to be conducted after an initial trial period.
PURPOSE
The purpose of the Bill is to implement the Council of Australian Governments' (COAG) agreement of 29 November 2008 to facilitate the inter-jurisdictional exchange of criminal history information for people working with children (ECHIPWC), including information about spent, pardoned and quashed convictions.
As part of the agreement, each jurisdiction is required to remove any legislative impediments to the exchange of criminal history information for people working with children. This Bill removes the legislative barriers at the Commonwealth level to ensure that the Commonwealth can provide information in accordance with the COAG agreement.
FINANCIAL IMPACT STATEMENT
The amendments in this Bill have no financial impact on Government revenue.