Child Abuse and Neglect: a socio-legal Study of Mandatory Reporting in Australia

2012 amendment of ‘teacher’

In 2012 the Teacher Registration Act 2012 amended the CCSA 2004 s 124A definition of ‘teacher’ by deleting paragraphs (a) and (b), which stated:

‘teacher’ means -

1. 
   a person who, under the Western Australian College of Teaching Act 2004, is registered, provisionally registered or has a limited authority to teach; or
   
2. 
   a person who is appointed under the School Education Act 1999 s 236(2) as a member of the teaching staff of a community kindergarten;
   

and inserting a new paragraph (a) so that a ‘teacher’ is defined as:

a person who is registered under the Teacher Registration Act 2012.

This had the effect that any person who ‘teaches’ at a school, kindergarten, child care centre, detention centre or any place prescribed as an educational venue, is a mandated reporter.⁵⁷

This is because under the TRA 2012 s 6, it is an offence to ‘teach in an educational venue unless the person is a registered teacher’.⁵⁸ Those who had to be ‘registered teachers’ include those who ‘teach’ at child care centres (but does not include those who simply provide care at a child care centre). This is because of the definitions of ‘teach’, ‘educational venue’ and ‘educational programme’.⁵⁹

In sum, this means that among the teaching profession, mandated reporters in Western Australia are those who are registered under the Teacher Registration Act 2012 and whose duties include delivery of an educational programme in an educational venue. Those who provide care at child care centres but who do not teach at that centre will not be mandated; nor will teacher’s aides, teacher’s assistants, and student teachers.

1.5.8.3. Current position: Western Australia

The duty is limited to sexual abuse, and is applied to a relatively small range of professionals. The duty is also limited by its temporal scope; it applies only to situations of past or currently-occurring sexual abuse, and does not include a requirement to report situations in which a child is believed to be likely to suffer sexual abuse.

Figure 1.8: Timeline showing key developments, Western Australia, 2003-2012