Victorian Repealed Acts

This legislation has been repealed.

Children and Young Persons Act 1989 - SECT 66

Investigation by protective intervener

66. Investigation by protective intervener



(1) A protective intervener must, as soon as practicable after receiving a
notification under section 64(1) or (1A), investigate, or cause another
protective intervener to investigate, the subject-matter of the notification
in a way that will best ensure the safety and well-being of the child.

(2) A protective intervener who is investigating the subject-matter of a
notification-

   (a)  must inform the child and the child's parents that any information
        they give may be used for the purposes of a protection application;
        and

   (b)  must not disclose any information arising from the investigation to
        anyone other than a court or a person referred to in any paragraph of
        sub-section (4) or a person to whom the protective intervener is
        authorised by the Secretary to disclose the information.

(2A) The Secretary may only authorise the disclosure of information to a
person under sub-section (2)(b) if he or she believes on reasonable grounds
that the disclosure is necessary to assist in the investigation of the
subject-matter of the notification.





(3) On completing an investigation of a notification, the
protective intervener must, as soon as practicable, make a written record of-

   (a)  details of the investigation; and

   (b)  the results of the investigation.

(4) If after completing an investigation of a notification the
protective intervener decides not to make a protection application, a person
must not disclose the record of the investigation made under sub-section (3)
to anyone other than-

   (a)  the child; or

   (b)  the child's parents; or

   (c)  the Secretary; or





   (d)  the Chief Commissioner of Police; or

   (da) a person in connection with a review by the Victorian Civil and
        Administrative Tribunal or a panel appointed under section 121(3) of
        decisions relating to the recording of information in the central
        register referred to in section 65(1)(b); or

   (e)  a person who is, or is a member of a class of persons who are,
        authorised in writing by the Secretary or the Chief Commissioner of
        Police to have access to that record or the class of records to which
        that record belongs.

Penalty applying to this sub-section: 10 penalty units.

(5) The Secretary must, on a request made in accordance with any directions of
the Minister by a member of the police force who is investigating the
subject-matter of a notification under section 64(1), submit a
protection report to that member within 21 days.

(6) A member of the police force who receives a protection report under
sub-section (5) or the author of that report must not disclose any information
contained in it to any person other than another protective intervener who is
investigating the subject-matter of the notification.

Penalty applying to this sub-section: 10 penalty units.

(7) Nothing in sub-section (6) prevents the disclosure to a court by a member
of the police force of information contained in a protection report received
by that member.

(8) Despite anything to the contrary in the Freedom of Information Act 1982,
sub-section (4) does not have the effect of making the record of the
investigation an exempt document for the purposes of that Act.