Royal Commissions Amendment (Protection of Information) Act 2021 (103 of 2021)

Schedule 1   Amendments

Part 1   Main amendments

Royal Commissions Act 1902

6   At the end of Division 3 of Part 4

Add:

6OP Protection of certain information given to the Disability Royal Commission

(1) This section applies to information if:

(a) the information was given by, or on behalf of, a natural person to the Disability Royal Commission other than for the purposes of a private session; and

(b) the information contains any of the following:

(i) an account of the natural person's, or another person's, experiences of violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation;

(ii) an account of the natural person's, or another person's, experiences of systemic violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation; and

(c) the information directly or indirectly identifies the natural person who gave the information, or on whose behalf the information was given; and

(d) the information was treated as confidential by the Commission at all times after being given to the Commission.

(2) Section 6OE applies:

(a) in all cases - in relation to the natural person who gave the information to the Commission, as if the information were a statement or disclosure made by that person at a private session for the Commission; and

(b) if the information was given to the Commission on behalf of another natural person - in relation to the other natural person as if the information were a statement or disclosure made on behalf of that other person at a private session for the Commission.

(3) Sections 6OH, 6OK and 6OL apply in relation to the information as if it were information given by the natural person at a private session for the Commission.

(3A) Section 6OJ applies in relation to the information as if it were information obtained at a private session for the Commission.

(4) Section 6OM applies in relation to the information as if it were a record that contains information obtained at a private session for the Commission.

(5) A reference in subparagraph (1)(b)(ii) to experiences of systemic violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation is a reference to experiences, or an awareness, of a policy, procedure, practice, act or omission that contributed, or may have contributed, to a natural person experiencing violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation.