Ingergovernmental Agreement for a National Exchange of Criminal History Information for People Working with Children
In November 2008, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed that to better protect children governments would, within 12 months, take the necessary legislative and administrative action necessary to expand the range of criminal history information they provide each other for child-related employment screening.
The Department of the Premier and Cabinet led this national work and, in November 2009, COAG Senior Officials signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the National Exchange of Criminal History Information for People Working with Children. The MoU set out arrangements for the exchange of information.
Summary
Prior to the MoU, Australian screening units generally only had access to convictions information held by other state and territory police services when considering the backgrounds of people applying to work with children.
Under the MoU, participating screening units now routinely access other information from interstate about applicants, including:
- spent convictions (convictions which, after a rehabilitation period, are otherwise no longer part of the person's criminal history and which the person need not otherwise disclose)
- current charges not yet heard by a court
- prior charges, for example, charges withdrawn before being heard by a court
- further police information about the circumstances of convictions or charges, for example, whether a child was the victim of, or involved in, an alleged offence.
Queensland’s screening units participating in the exchange are Blue Card Services within the Department of Justice and Attorney-General, and the Queensland College of Teachers.
The contents of the MoU have now been transferred to an Intergovernmental Agreement signed by First Ministers.
You can read the Intergovernmental Agreement (PDF, 2.63MB).