Education Dept Fails on Child Abuse

Date: 08 May 2000

Ms Jennifer Leete, Deputy President NSW Teachers Federation said:

"The Federation believes that children must be protected from child abuse. At the same time, however, Federation is absolutely committed to ensuring that teachers have the right to fair and just procedures where allegations of child abuse are made against them".

"Like the Ombudsman, the Federation has been critical of the Department of Education and Training for the manner in which it responded to allegations of child abuse against its staff. The Federation agrees with the Ombudsman that the Department of Education and Training must respond quickly and effectively to such allegations".

"Based on the experience of the past few years teachers do not have confidence that they will be treated in a fair and just way. The Federation has, over a number of years, exposed the failings of the Case Management Unit in terms of the length of time involved in investigations, the lack of effective training of investigating officers, their poor information-gathering procedures and in some cases the partisan approach that has been adopted to the conduct of investigations".

"Teachers feel that the Department of Education and Training is not necessarily committed to protecting them from trivial, malicious and vexatious complaints and will sometimes appear to act in a manner designed to protect the Department from criticism rather than exercising an appropriate discretion in the interest of teachers".

"For teachers to feel confident that allegations will be dealt with in a fair and efficient way an appropriate standard of proof must be applied to investigations, such a standard has long since been established by law and contrary to suggestions in recent media items has never been the criminal standard of "beyond reasonable doubt". It goes without saying that in a democratic society such as Australia punitive actions which have an impact on teachers' careers and livelihood must not be taken on the basis of rumour and innuendo".

"The track record of the Department of Education and Training has been so poor on these matters that the Federation would oppose any attempt to give additional or unfettered powers to the Director-General. Federation would not be confident such powers would be exercised appropriately".

"Federation is, however, committed to the development of a process which will be effective whilst at the same time respects the appropriate interests of all parties".

"Given its history of actively trying to improve these processes, the Federation is most disappointed that the Ombudsman did not consult the Federation about the matters canvassed in his report".

"The Federation has always indicated its willingness to contribute to the development of fair, transparent and efficient processes for dealing with allegations of improper conduct so that students are protected and teachers are treated justly".

"Teachers do not want to see one unjust system replaced with another and Federation is committed to ensuring that such a situation does not eventuate".

For further information please contact:
Jennifer Leete, Deputy President, NSWTF (w) 9217 2199 (m) 0418 224 328
Joan Lemaire, Industrial Officer, NSWTF (w) 9217 2100 (m) 0407 424808

For further information

Contact:	John Hughes
Union:	NSW Teachers Federation
Phone:	0418 423834
WWW:	http://www.nswtf.org.au/

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