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FACT SHEET
Registration to Work with Vulnerable People Amendment Bill 2018
This Bill implements the Government’s commitment to improving the safety of vulnerable
people in Tasmania. It gives effect to recommendations arising from the Royal Commission into
Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse and the National Disability Insurance Scheme
(NDIS) which represents a fundamental change to how supports to people with a disability are
funded and delivered across Australia.
The Registration to Work with Vulnerable People Act at 2013 (“the Act”) is to be amended to:
1. Include new requirements previously agreed at a national level, namely:
a. National Standards for Working with Children Checks (WWCC);
b. Intergovernmental Agreement on Nationally Consistent Worker Screening
for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (IGA); and
2. Include new requirements to address contemporary practices and administration of the Act.
Tasmania’s endorsement of the WWCC and IGA national agreements aims to create nationally
consistent worker screening and the development of two national databases. The databases will
facilitate the exchange of applicants’ worker registration status, relevant risk assessment
information and ongoing monitoring of registered persons at a national level.
Both the WWCC and IGA national agreements aim to introduce ‘disqualifying offences’, which
are offences that are prescribed within the legislation that deem a person unable to hold a
registration to work with vulnerable people.
Since its inception in 2014, Tasmania’s worker screening unit has phased in the registration of all
workers working in child related sectors and is now ready to phase in the registration of people
to work with vulnerable adults. The unit is also committed to accept applications for workers
employed through NDIS from1 July 2019. As a consequence the Bill accommodates new
categories of registration and resultant amendments to relevant subordinate legislation.
This Bill amends the Act to:
1. Allow for categories of registration from child related regulated activities, to vulnerable
children and adults, including those with NDIS endorsement;
2. Create new ‘disqualifying offences’ whereby applicants are automatically excluded from
applying if they have been convicted of any of these offences and withdrawn if convicted
while registered;
3. Limit the existing requirements in relation to persons not required to be registered, and
place further supervisory restrictions on persons who are permitted to work while their
application is underway;
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4. Clarify and broaden the Registrar’s capacity to request additional information from applicants
and registered persons and provide consequences for the non-provision of that information;
and
5. Allow for the exchange of registration status, risk assessment information and continuous
monitoring at a national level.
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