South Australian Current Acts South Australian Current Acts (1) For the purposes
of this Act, a child or young person will be taken to be "at risk if—
(a) the
child or young person has suffered harm (being harm of a kind against which a
child or young person is ordinarily protected); or
(b)
there is a likelihood that the child or young person will suffer harm (being
harm of a kind against which a child or young person is ordinarily protected);
or
(c)
there is a likelihood that the child or young person will be removed from the
State (whether by their parent or guardian or by some other person) for the
purpose of—
(i)
being subjected to a medical or other procedure that
would be unlawful if performed in this State (including, to avoid doubt,
female genital mutilation); or
(ii)
taking part in a marriage ceremony (however described)
that would be a void marriage, or would otherwise be an invalid marriage,
under the Marriage Act 1961 of the Commonwealth; or
(iii)
enabling the child or young person to take part in an
activity, or an action to be taken in respect of the child or young person,
that would, if it occurred in this State, constitute an offence against the
Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 or the Criminal Code of the
Commonwealth; or
(d) the
parents or guardians of the child or young person—
(i)
are unable or unwilling to care for the
child or young person; or
(ii)
have abandoned the child or young person, or cannot,
after reasonable inquiry, be found; or
(iii)
are dead; or
(e) the
child or young person is of compulsory school age but has been persistently
absent from school without satisfactory explanation of the absence; or
(f) the
child or young person is of no fixed address; or
(g) any
other circumstances of a kind prescribed by the regulations exist in relation
to the child or young person.
(2) It is immaterial
for the purposes of this Act that any conduct referred to in
subsection (1) took place wholly or partly outside this State.
(3) In assessing
whether there is a likelihood that a child or young person will suffer harm,
regard must be had to not only the current circumstances of their care but
also the history of their care and the likely cumulative effect on the
child or young person of that history.
(4) In this
section—
"female genital mutilation" means—
(a)
clitoridectomy; or
(b)
excision of any other part of the female genital organs; or
(c) a
procedure to narrow or close the vaginal opening; or
(d) any
other mutilation of the female genital organs,
but does not include a sexual reassignment procedure or a medical procedure
that has a genuine therapeutic purpose;
"sexual reassignment procedure" means a surgical procedure to give a female,
or a person whose sex is ambivalent, genital characteristics, or ostensible
genital characteristics, of a male.
(5) A medical
procedure has a genuine therapeutic purpose only if directed at curing or
alleviating a physiological disability or physical abnormality.