Peak body to push back on state’s ‘gagging’ of youth justice groups
By Matt Dennien
The news
Queensland’s peak social service body will meet with Youth Justice department officials next week seeking changes to new contract terms it says will result in the “gagging” of frontline groups from speaking with media.
Queensland Council of Social Service chief executive Aimee McVeigh has backed concerns raised by other community leaders about the changes, and detailed a shift in even the enforcement of existing contracts – denied by government – also worrying the sector.
QCOSS chief executive Aimee McVeigh speaks to media outside state parliament last year in opposition to the Crisafulli LNP government’s ‘Making Queensland Safer Bill’.Credit: Matt Dennien
“We have received an invitation to meet with the department next week to have discussions about the contracts, and we would hope that there will be reconsideration of these terms,” McVeigh told this masthead after it revealed the concerns.
“If there are legitimate issues that require adjustments to contracts to ensure better protections for the rights of vulnerable young people, the sector will, of course, be wanting to support that.
“But that should not be a net-widening exercise that then results in gagging the ability of community services to speak about important public policy issues.”
Why it matters
As promised in its campaign, the Crisafulli government has launched and funded a range of new youth justice programs delivered by a range of non-government organisations.
A July document on the Youth Justice website contains details of the “contractual requirements” for such groups and others providing existing services funded by the department.
These bar groups and their staff from sharing details about funded programs with media, but also go further – including required notification of the department if contacted by media.
The Queensland Council of Civil Liberties and Queensland Council of Unions have acknowledged the department’s concern for the privacy of children, but said the “disturbing” changes went further.
What they said
McVeigh said the new standard terms of contracts to be issued to service providers by the department “are a material change to the contracts that service providers currently operate under”.
“They impose much wider restrictions in relation to how service providers are to engage with the media, and they will hamper the ability of service providers to engage in public discourse in relation to matters of significant public interest related to youth justice,” she said.
While her organisation was supportive of privacy protections for children under youth justice orders, and service providers were aware of their responsibilities around this, McVeigh said it was not just the conditions of new contracts being changed – but the enforcement of existing ones.
“Even under the existing contracts, service providers have been told they’re in breach of their contract when they speak to the media in relation to youth justice issues.”
Another figure to speak out after this masthead’s revelations late on Friday was Sisters Inside chief executive Debbie Kilroy OAM.
“We have seen this before,” Kilroy said in a statement – the first by a frontline organisation in the sector.
“These latest moves echo the Campbell Newman era, when in 2012 Queensland Health and other departments inserted ‘gag’ clauses into contracts, described at the time as “hush money”, that prohibited NGOs from advocating for law reform if more than half their funding came from government.
“These gag clauses are designed to prevent organisations from telling the truth about what is happening to children in so-called ‘youth justice’ systems, predominantly Aboriginal children.
Labor’s youth justice spokesperson, Di Farmer, said in a statement that youth justice was a complex issue requiring robust and difficult discussions – which the contracts would hinder.
Another perspective
In response to questions from this masthead, a department spokesperson on Friday said contract clauses relating to program-specific details and personal information were a longstanding practice.
Youth Justice Minister Laura Gerber has echoed this position and highlighted the government’s “$560 million of new early intervention and rehabilitation programs to help turn the tide on Labor’s Youth Crime Crisis”.
Her office has confirmed the changes were made by her department, not at the request of the minister, after it received recent Crown Law advice.
While confidentiality and privacy requirements under youth justice laws have not changed, the parliament passed related changes in last year’s Information Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Act, with some providers said to have unlawfully disclosed photos and information identifying young people involved in programs.
Crisafulli’s office did not respond to a question on Friday about whether similar media requirements were planned for contracts across other sectors.
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