Youth mentoring organisation Menslink has been fined $2500 for allowing Education Minister Joy Burch's son, on bail for aggravated robbery at the time, into schools without a Working with Vulnerable People card.
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Ms Burch's son, Lloyd Burch, 21, visited Canberra high schools to talk to teenage boys last year with Menslink's Silence is Deadly program, which aims to reduce youth suicide.
He made the visits while on bail and awaiting sentencing for his conviction in April of the 2013 knife-point robbery of a takeaway store in Phillip. He had been given a chance to turn his life around before sentencing in October last year.
Lloyd Burch's volunteer work with Menslink helped him avoid a lengthy jail sentence. The judge suspended his sentence on the basis that he had not only complied with his deferred sentence order but gone beyond by working in schools with Menslink, where he had "shared his experiences with the deterioration of his life through drug abuse with students".
But the discovery of Lloyd Burch's conviction came as a shock to many in Menslink, including the board, whose then-chairman Peter Clarke said he and the board had been "absolutely aghast" at the discovery. The issue had only been brought to the board's attention after the sentencing, he said.
Lloyd Burch should not have been in schools without a Working with Vulnerable People Card, and given his conviction he would not have got one, Rear-Admiral Clarke, who is retired from the Navy, said. The board had self-referred the breach to the Office of Regulatory Services, and Menslink was then fined.
Not only had Menslink broken the law (which requires people to have a card if they are in schools more than three days in any four-week period, or seven days in a year), Lloyd Burch was not a suitable person to take into schools in any case, given he had not been sentenced or rehabilitated, Rear-Admiral Clarke said.
Rear-Admiral Clarke had phoned the principals of the schools Lloyd Burch visited to explain what happened and to apologise.
Rear-Admiral Clarke was concerned about the impact on Menslink, given its important work with young people, and on Lloyd Burch.
"The really sad thing about this is when we've dealt with our own culpability as an organisation, there's poor Lloyd Burch sitting out there on his own. He's been allowed to break the law with our assistance and the poor bugger's on a suspended sentence. On a whole bunch of levels, this is a very unsatisfactory series of events. All I can say in defence of Menslink ... is as soon as we found out about it we took very quick and very firm action."
The issue has caused major angst inside the organisation. At least one of the people who went into schools with Lloyd Burch resigned in protest in the past fortnight, and at least one other person is said to be deeply unhappy.
The men are upset they were expected to take Lloyd Burch into schools without being told of his conviction. They say they would not have accompanied him or allowed him to have contact with teenage school boys if they had known. They knew he was the education minister's son, but the information wasn't routinely divulged to schools. They said Lloyd Burch should have been referred to Menslink's counselling program, not been used as a role model for teenage boys.
It remains unclear to what extent, if any, Lloyd Burch shared his aggravated robbery conviction with school students. While Menslink staff say it was not suitable information to share with teenage boys in the program, Menslink chief executive Martin Fisk provided a reference for Lloyd Burch at his sentencing, which said he had spoken with groups of high school and teenage students - in groups of up to 300 at a time, "about his spiral into drugs and the crime he committed", "providing a real-life example of the damage of drug use and other issues".
Mr Fisk's reference said Lloyd Burch had volunteered since February 2014 "collecting money at a number of fundraising events". "When we became aware of his conviction, we approached Lloyd to speak with students as part of our Silence is Deadly campaign, as we felt his story would resonate with young men."
Rear-Admiral Clarke's term has since come to an end and Michael Battenally has taken his place as chairman.
Mr Battenally said the board had dealt with the issue as openly and firmly as it could.
"We as an organisation have been very frank and honest. At no point did we look at each other and say, 'Let's not tell anyone'," he said. "We'll stand strong and say that we want to continue to support people in a safe way to ensure that we can help change lives."
Asked how Lloyd Burch had come to be working with Menslink, Mr Battenally said "The CEO made a wrong decision about engaging that volunteer with the program. It was just a judgment call."
Mr Battenally, also a school principal, said, "It's fairly clear that any principal would say, no, we don't want that person working on the site without having a Working with Vulnerable People clearance."
Mr Fisk declined to comment.
Education Minister Ms Burch, who was also Children and Young Person's Minister until this year and is now Police Minister, launched the Silence is Deadly campaign just over two years ago, and in December last year she presented the group with an award for its program. The extent of her involvement, if any, with her son's work with Menslink remains unclear.
Ms Burch did not answer questions about whether she had any involvement in introducing her son to Menslink, but said, "It is a matter of public record that my adult son Lloyd was a volunteer in the Silence is Deadly program, a program designed to encourage boys and young men to seek help for their problems.
"Any volunteering activity undertaken by my son is his choice and his responsibility, and has no bearing on my ministerial responsibilities."
