Justice and Other Information Disclosure Bill
Posted by Administrator (admin) on Jun 10 2008
2008 >>

Mr LAWLOR (Southport—ALP) (4.42 pm):

The Justice and Other Information Disclosure Bill seeks to provide a statutory basis for the sharing of criminal justice information between criminal justice agencies—that is, Queensland Corrective Services, the Department of Justice and Attorney-General, the Queensland Police Service and the Department of Communities—and, to a limited extent, information sharing between the Department of Justice and Attorney-General, the Queensland Police Service and the Department of Child Safety.

The explanatory notes point out that Child Safety is not
directly involved in prosecuting and managing offenders in the criminal justice system, but there are— ... clear benefits for strategic decision-making and policy and program development from being able to identify offenders who have come into contact with the child protection system and to being able to analyse trends in offending and life outcomes. The Department of Child Safety will also benefit from IJIS through improved access to information held by the Department of Justice and Attorney-General, in its court administration role, in relation to child protection applicants who are before the courts, juvenile defendants who are also in the child protection system, and adult defendants who are persons of interest to that department.

In his second reading speech, the Attorney-General said that the bill contains two authorisation provisions which, if met, will enable a chief executive of a criminal justice agency to share information with the chief executive of another such agency or between the Department of Justice and Attorney- General and Child Safety. The sharing will be for limited purposes only. The Attorney-General said that it was recognised that information sharing must be done in a way that safeguards privacy and
confidentiality.
He said— ... although these objectives cannot become barriers for information sharing that is necessary for the delivery of criminal justice services.

Part 2 of the bill refers to ‘justice information’ in the context of disclosure between criminal justice agencies and is defined in clause 4 as information about ‘a person in the criminal justice system’ if it is obtained by a criminal justice agency in performing its functions under an act or law—or in the performance by a person engaged or employed by the agency of such a function—and is relevant to a justice purpose. Examples of ‘justice information’ include details of a court appearance of a person, a court decision and when an offender is released from a criminal justice facility. A justice purpose for which justice information about a person is disclosed between agencies is any of those specified in clause 5. In short, these are purposes enabling the agency receiving the information to: prepare for a justice proceeding relating to the person; attend or arrange attendance at the justice proceeding—an example would be a criminal proceeding in which the person was a defendant; record and give effect to a court decision regarding the person; use the person’s criminal history to the extent that the receiving agency is authorised to do so; conduct information linking in relation to the person; provide for the safety and welfare of the person or someone else in certain situations; provide for effective supervision of a person under certain non-prison based orders; record the fact of and manage the release of the person from a facility; provide for, or consider if it needs to provide for, the safety and welfare of others such as the victim, a witness, a child associated with the
person, someone employed or engaged by the receiving agency who may be in contact with the person, or someone else because of certain specified associations, for example a person in a domestic violence
order; conduct person-of-interest matching—that is, using the information to identify persons in relation to whom the receiving agency may have a function under the act; conduct certain research and statistical analysis and use the results in a non-identifying form; conduct tests of technical informationsharing
systems; or a prescribed purpose.

Clause 17 provides that the regulation-making power sunsets
two years after clause 17 commences and any regulation made expires one year after it commences. A chief executive of a criminal justice agency may, under clause 13 arrangements made with a chief executive of another agency, make justice information about a person in the criminal justice system available to the receiving agency for a justice purpose listed in clause 5, which I just listed. The form of arrangement for giving and receiving criminal justice and child protection information is set out in clause 13. It must be in writing and may provide for electronic transfer and it must state all limitations on the purposes for which the information may be used. Despite the Public Records Act 2002, the receiving agency must dispose of the information as soon as practicable if it is no longer required by the agency to perform a function and it is reasonably
practicable to dispose of the information. That is in clause 14. A penalty applies for contravention of that provision. The rationale for this requirement, particularly regarding person-of-interest matching, is covered in the explanatory notes.

Part 3 concerns the disclosure of child protection information between child protection agencies, which are defined as Child Safety, the Department of Justice and Attorney-General and the Queensland Police Service. Child protection information is information about a person in the child protection system or the criminal justice system if it is obtained by a child protection agency in performance of its functions under an act or law—or in the performance of a person engaged or employed by it of such a function—
and is relevant to a child protection purpose. An example of such information is the details of a court appearance. A child protection purpose is any of those specified in clause 8. These are virtually identical to those listed in relation to a criminal justice purpose, which I have just been through. The chief executive of Child Safety, the Department of Justice and Attorney-General or the Queensland Police Service may, under clause 13 arrangements made with the chief executive of another child protection agency, make child protection information about a person in the child protection or criminal justice system available to the receiving agency for a child protection purpose. The chief executive of Child Safety may also make child protection information about such a person available to
the police commissioner for a child protection purpose but only for those purposes listed in clause 8—
that is, to allow the police commissioner to conduct information linking or to test technical systems. The police commissioner may disclose child protection information about such a person to the
chief executive of Child Safety but only for the same limited purposes. Again, clause 14 requires that the information be discarded when it is no longer needed. In conjunction with the above proposals and representing an important part, clause 19 amends section 7 of the Child Protection Act to allow the chief executive of Child Safety to collect and publish information and statistics about, and to promote and conduct research into, harm to children, life outcomes of children in care and the relationship between
the criminal justice system and the child protection system.


Part 4 of the act deals with criminal justice agencies and child protection agencies making the relevant information available to an information technology service provider under a clause 13
arrangement to enable the provider to transmit the information from the sending agency to the receiving agency or to enable the provider to perform an information technology service for the receiving agency
to assist the latter in carrying out the purpose for which the information is sent to it. The information disclosure regime established by the bill does not apply to the information specified in clause 12. That information is

(a) information provided in certain applications made under the Police Powers and Responsibilities Act—for instance, relating to controlled operations, assumed identities, retrieval warrants, surveillance devices;

(b) information mentioned in the Police Powers and Responsibilities Act dealing with protecting methodologies that need not be disclosed in court unless it is necessary;

(c) information that may lead to identification of an informer;

(d) information that may lead to the identification of a person who is notified under section 186 of the Child Protection Act about
suspicion of harm or risk to a child or unborn child; and

(e) information that may lead to the identification of a detention centre employee who has reported harm or suspected harm to a child under section 268 of the Juvenile Justice Act.

Information provided under the bill must only be used for the purpose for which it is made available or a purpose authorised or permitted by an act. If the agency sending the information is subject
to a restriction about the use of the information, that restriction applies to the receiving agency except in certain circumstances. If a person acts honestly in providing information under the bill, that person is not civilly or criminally liable or liable under any administrative process, nor can he or she be held to have breached any code of professional ethics or departed from accepted standards of professional conduct. There are also protections regarding defamation and breach of confidentiality, and they are included in clause 16. Despite the inclusion of safeguards, there are some, such as the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties, who support the bill in principle but who are concerned that the protections against accidental or deliberate leaks are not strong enough. The government considers that the safeguards which have been incorporated in the act are quite adequate, and I support the bill.

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