CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY OF CHILD ADVOCACY Examining accountability in Children’s Services in Western Australia.
Lisa Baker, MLA
is a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly representing Maylands since the 2008 state election. She is the Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on the Commissioner for Children and Young People. She holds a Bachelor of Science and a Graduate Diploma of Development Studies and before entering parliament was the Chief Executive Officer of the Western Australia Council of Social Services.
The Joint Standing Committee on the Commissioner for Children and Young People (the Committee) is a Western Australian Parliamentary oversight committee charged with monitoring, reviewing and reporting on the exercise of the functions of an independent statutory authority, namely Western Australia’s Commissioner for Children and Young People. Parliamentary oversight committees for a children’s commissioner or similar position are rare, with New South Wales being the only other Australian jurisdiction to have such a Committee.1 The foundations for the establishment of the Committee can be traced to the final report tabled in 2004 by the Legislative Council Select Committee on Advocacy for Children on its Inquiry into the Appointment of a Commissioner for Children. The report investigated the need for children’s advocacy in Western Australia, reviewed national and international models of child advocacy and made recommendations for establishing advocacy for children and young people in this state. Among the Select Committee’s recommendations were those for a Commissioner
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for Children and Young People to be appointed for Western Australia, and for consideration to be given to a joint parliamentary committee of oversight. Pre-empting the Select Committee’s report, the then Minister for Community Development, Hon Sheila McHale MLA announced in May 2004 that the government intended to establish a new independent Children’s Commission, to be headed by a Commissioner. Legislation establishing the Commissioner for Children and Young People duly came into effect in 2006. Western Australia’s inaugural Commissioner, Ms Michelle Scott, was appointed to the position in November 2007 and took up the role in December 2007. Ms Scott retired from her position in December 2013; and the post was taken up in an acting capacity by Ms Jenni Perkins.2 In keeping with the Select Committee’s recommendations and a desire reflected during parliamentary debate for the Commissioner to be independent of executive government, the Commissioner for Children and Young People Act 2006 (the Act) provided for the establishment of a Joint Standing Committee on
the Commissioner for Children and Young People - which was to provide Parliamentary oversight. The debate surrounding the establishment of the Committee highlighted the importance of the Parliament having this oversight responsibility of reviewing and monitoring the activities of the Commissioner for the purposes of greater accountability and transparency.3 Greater accountability to be achieved through monitoring and review is, on a broader level, one of the basic principles underpinning parliamentary committees of oversight.4 The defining feature of the relationship between an independent body and its corresponding Parliamentary oversight committee is that of accountability: They are accountable to a parliamentary committee, the committee to the Parliament and the Parliament to the people.5 With this ideal of accountability underpinning the Committee’s work, each Committee6 has developed its own monitoring and review processes at the beginning of each parliament - informed by its functions and powers determined by agreement between the Houses. Among the Committee’s
terms of reference is a requirement to monitor, review and report to Parliament on the exercise of the functions of the Commissioner for Children and Young People; to examine annual and other reports of the Commissioner; and to consult regularly with the Commissioner. As such, the Committee’s earliest tasks comprised of regular hearings with the Commissioner and the close examination of the Commissioner’s Annual Reports - primarily focusing on the Commissioner’s strategic planning, key performance measures of the Commissioner’s Office and maintaining a watching brief on the Commissioner’s progress in several public policy priority areas identified by the Commissioners (such as early childhood, the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children xxxxxx and young people and the promotion of a child focus in the delivery of mainstream services). Historically, the Committee also monitored effectiveness of initiatives developed by the Commissioner as the role was developed over time and additional functions under the Act were explored.7 Various other functions of the Committee are defined throughout the Act; including the ability to make recommendations to the Treasurer in relation to the budget for the Commissioner for a financial year;8 the ability for the Committee to request that the Commissioner advise the Minister on ‘any matter relating to the wellbeing of children and young people’;9 and the ability to refer to the Commissioner ‘any written laws, draft laws, reports, policies, practices, procedures or other matters relating to the wellbeing of children and young people’ for the Commissioner to make recommendations upon.10 The Committee has only enacted these functions on
a needs be basis.11 Although the Committee has historically considered such functions an important plank to the Committee’s accountability role, the overuse of such functions could overly influence the direction of the Commissioner’s work away from the selfdetermined strategic priorities of the Commissioner’s office. A review of the operation and effectiveness of the Commissioner for Children and Young People Act 2006 was required to be conducted five years after it came into operation12 and was subsequently scheduled for early 2013. To inform the legislative review, the Committee of the 38th Parliament tabled its final report in November 2012 reviewing the functions of the Commissioner and made a number of recommendations for amendments to the Act. Parliament was prorogued before the statutory review took place; however the subsequent review of the Act had ‘significant regard’
to the Committee’s report.13 Other matters were to impact on the statutory review that would influence the way in which the Commissioner’s role would be considered going forward and subsequently impact on the method of oversight the Committee would employ. In November 2011, the Hon. Peter Blaxell was appointed to conduct a Special Inquiry into the response of public officials to allegations of sexual abuse at the St Andrew’s Hostel in Katanning (a regional town in Western Australia).14 The report (known as the Blaxell Inquiry) made a number of recommendations; notably, in this context, that there “exists an opportunity for a whole of government approach to developing a ‘child-friendly’ system for handling complaints in relation to child abuse...[the development of which] would aim for a ‘one stop shop’…as an avenue for any complaint.”15 When tabling the Report, the Premier, showing clear support for the Blaxell Inquiry’s
recommendations, advised Parliament that the government “has selected the Commissioner for Children and Young People as the preferred body to perform the one-stop shop complaints role.”16
“The defining feature of the relationship between an independent body and its corresponding Parliamentary oversight committee is that of accountability: They are accountable to a parliamentary committee, the committee to the Parliament and the Parliament to the people.”
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