Committee Details

COMMITTEE'S REPORT

The committee tabled its report on 12 November 2021. The government's response to the committee's report was tabled on 10 February 2022. The Bill was passed on 10 May 2022.

About the Bill 

On 15 September 2021, Hon Leanne Linard MP, Minister for Children and Youth Justice and Minister for Multicultural Affairs, introduced the Child Protection Reform and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021 (Bill) into the Queensland Parliament.  The Bill was referred to the Community Support and Services Committee for detailed consideration and report by Friday 12 November 2021.

The explanatory notes state that the objective of the Bill is to better support children and young people in care, and streamline, clarify or improve processes, as part of the Supporting Families Changing Futures reform program. The Bill aims to achieve its policy objectives by amending the Child Protection Act 1999 to:

• reinforcing children’s rights in the legislative framework
• strengthening children’s voices in decisions that affect them; and
• streamlining, clarifying and improving the regulation of care.

The Bill also amends the Adoption Act 2009 to resolve technical issues relating to delegations under the Immigration (Guardianship of Children) Act 1946 (Cth).

The Bill also makes priority amendments to the Working with Children (Risk Management and Screening) Act 2000. The policy objectives of these amendments are to:

• provide a legislative basis for the chief executive (working with children) to request domestic violence information from the Queensland Police Commissioner (police commissioner) for the purposes of a blue card assessment;
• facilitate Queensland’s participation in the Working with Children Check National Reference System (WWCC NRS)—a national database which enables jurisdictions to identify persons who have been deemed ineligible to work with children in another state or territory;
• enable the chief executive (working with children) to have regard to adverse decisions in other jurisdictions as part of a blue card assessment;
• simplify and streamline the categories of regulated employment and regulated business that deals with licensed care services to better reflect the contemporary service delivery model used by licensees in discharging their functions, including greater outsourcing to contractors and sub-contractors; and
• enable a licensee to have greater visibility over the blue card status of each person performing a risk-assessed role for a licensed care service operated under the licence.

Timeline