Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

The mandatory reporting which comes in is recorded, and that would relate to the alleged sexual assaults and serious physical assaults. The department also receives other reports of a wider and more general nature which relate to activity and abuse that both the Democrats and the ALP have sought to include in amendments. The department would merely have to look at whether there has been an increase in the number of reports for which protection is offered and whether there has been a decrease or a plateauing in the number of reports for which protection is not offered.

Could I suggest that, if you saw reports that were the subject of protection suddenly increase, you could deduce two things: (1) the mandatory reporting was working and (2) the protection that was being offered for that reporting was working. In contrast to that, if you saw a fall-off in reporting of abuse of a more general nature, you would have to ask the question: ‘Why is one increasing and the other dropping off? Are they disproportionate? If they are, why are they disproportionate?’ The department keeps a record of all of these reports—keeping data is part and parcel of its role—and it could draw a comparison between the reporting. If you want to engender a culture of reporting, obviously you would want to compare and contrast the number of reports and the nature of the reports. You would also want to work out whether the mandatory reporting and the protection you were offering to people were working. You could tell that by the number of reports. That would be one way of monitoring it.