At 1 January 2003, doctors were the only profession in Queensland who had any form of mandatory reporting duty. The duty was in the Health Act 1937 (Qld) s76K(1). The provision was unlike any other in Australia. The provision required a ‘medical practitioner’ who suspects on reasonable grounds the ‘maltreatment or neglect of a child in such a manner as to subject or be likely to subject the child to unnecessary injury, suffering or danger’ to report within 24 hours to a person authorised under a regulation to be notified.25 Apart from the stated concepts of ‘unnecessary injury, suffering or danger’, the terms ‘maltreatment’ and ‘neglect’ were not defined. The terms ‘unnecessary injury, suffering or danger’ were not otherwise defined. ‘Child’ was defined as a person under the age of 17 (s 76M). Immunity from proceedings was conferred by ss 76K(6) and (7). Also unusually, there was no penalty for failure to comply.
Due to the broad concepts in this reporting duty, it may be expected that doctors would be reporting substantial numbers of cases. However, the lack of a penalty may also have influenced a failure to report.
