The ACT Greens will back Labor on its moves to expand the secrecy surrounding Canberra's child protection system, claiming people should not have access to basic reports on specific cases under freedom-of-information laws.
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Despite campaigning for, and playing a key role in, a recent overhaul of the ACT's freedom-of-information laws, the minor party will support Labor MLAs to back new laws proposing a blanket exemption for child protection reports from that legislation.
Greens leader Shane Rattenbury confirmed his party would support an omnibus legal bill Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay introduced into the Legislative Assembly, despite an Assembly committee simultaneously launching a fresh inquiry into the system.
The inquiry will focus on the systemic implications of a specific local case, but will also cast a wider net to examine what some of the territory's senior lawyers in the area have described as the nation's most secretive child protection system.
It came as the ACT Law Society warned the government bill could see people involved in child protection cases unable to access child protection and concern reports.
While such information can be accessed without jeopardising others' privacy, such as those making reports, the exemption could stop people involved in such cases accessing information about their own case.
Mr Rattenbury and Mr Ramsay have claimed the changes would align the relevant provisions of the Freedom of Information Act with the Children and Young People Act, but lawyers argue it would widen the measures, making it more difficult to access information.
The government has also argued the changes, which are contained in an omnibus legal bill, are simply technical amendments which would not change the existing privacy protections, a claim the society disputes, given they would have a broader effect than the current measures.
Mr Rattenbury's spokeswoman said the minor party was supporting the changes, as they were more consistent with the information-protection measures in the CYP Act.
She also said the Greens did not support people accessing child protection information under the FOI Act, instead believing people should only apply under the more stringent CYP Act to access such information.
"Whether the CYP Act prohibits certain information from being shared is a separate issue and should not be central to the FOI changes in the omnibus bill," she said.
While Children's Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith has announced a review of some child protection measures, opposition spokeswoman Elizabeth Kikkert has repeatedly argued the government has failed to act on long-standing recommendations to implement new external review mechanisms and create greater transparency of the entire system.
The Assembly committee inquiry is currently accepting public submissions.
