The Assembly debated a bill brought by Labor to amend the Crimes (Child Sex Offenders) Amendment Act 2005. This Act prohibits child sex offenders from applying for, or engaging in, child-related employment. 

The Act lists the types of employment that are considered to be ‘child-related’. However, a gap in the legislation was recently revealed when a child sex offender was found to have been employed by Legal Aid ACT, with access to sensitive cases involving children, including child abuse cases.

The bill debated in the Assembly sought to address this gap by capturing ‘legal services provided to a child by Legal Aid ACT’ under the definition of child-related employment. 

The Liberals sought to amend the bill to remove the reference to Legal Aid ACT, such that all legal services provided to a child would be captured in the Act. 

While Thomas agreed with the intent of this amendment, and was tempted to support it given the gravity of the subject matters, the amendment was only circulated the day prior following no apparent consultation with the legal sector, and with insufficient time given to Members to consider — or consult on — the implications of this change. Given the change would require a response beyond the remit of the public sector, as in the case of Legal Aid, Thomas was concerned that it may have unintended consequences for the legal sector. Only the Liberals voted in favour of their amendment; all other Members opposed it.

The Greens held the same concerns as Thomas and moved an alternative amendment, requiring the ACT Government to commence work to identify any other gaps in this legislation, both within and beyond the legal sector, and to report back to the Assembly by the last sitting day of this year. This amendment passed on the voices.

Ultimately, Thomas decided that the most critical issue at hand was to resolve the obvious gap in the legislation related to Legal Aid, before requiring a more fulsome consideration of whether other gaps exist within the legal sector, and more broadly in any other sectors, to prevent any future circumstances whereby a child sex offender may be able to work with children.