Commission reviews mandatory reporting regime

ABC - The World Today
February 17, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2013/s3946176.htm?site=brisbane

ELEANOR HALL: And the Royal Commission is also looking at the mandatory reporting regime that was in place at the time of the abuse at the Toowoomba School. The rules were tightened after the school principal was found not guilty of failing to refer the allegation to police.

Monique Scattini represented the families of five victims who took the civil action. She spoke to Emily Bourke about how the mandatory reporting rules have changed since then.

MONIQUE SCATTINI: In 2006 the reporting requirements under the Education General Provisions Act, that required that a person must provide a written report, and that that written report needed to be handed to police where there was an allegation.

Now, what happened, the principal of the school satisfied the test, if you like, under that piece of legislation that was in place around reporting - albeit fairly wanting in relation to the sum of his sort of emails and phone calls with his superiors at the school.

However, he was found not guilty, and his charges dismissed, because he didn't, it was the obligation, under that particular piece of legislation, for the senior staff in Catholic ed to report it, and the charges weren't brought against them, and therefore the charges were dismissed against the principal.

EMILY BOURKE: So it was individual failure, and then that became broader organisational failure. Is that your reading of it?

MONIQUE SCATTINI: Most definitely, most definitely.

EMILY BOURKE: And a loophole in the legal framework of the time?

MONIQUE SCATTINI: Yes, I think… well, the legislation has been amended a couple of times, but most notably in 2011, where, had the principal, had charges been brought now, the principal would have been required to report.

So I guess the whole scapegoat of, you know, refer it up and it's not my problem has not been removed with the amendments to that legislations. So, if it's reported to you and you're a teacher, the obligation is on you to report that abuse directly to police.

ELEANOR HALL: That's Monique Scattini, who was legal counsel for families of abuse victims from a Primary School in Toowoomba.