CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE ACT 2008 - SECT 359 Reports made to public advocate or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and

CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE ACT 2008 - SECT 359

    (1)     This section applies if—

        (a)     a person believes or suspects that a child or young person—

              (i)     is being abused; or

              (ii)     is being neglected; or

              (iii)     is at risk of abuse or neglect; and

        (b)     the person reports the belief or suspicion, and the reasons for the belief or suspicion, to the public advocate or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people commissioner.

    (2)     The public advocate or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people commissioner must give the director-general a copy of the report.

    (3)     The report is taken to be a voluntary report.

    (4)     The person who made the report to the public advocate or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people commissioner is taken to have made a voluntary report.

Note 1     There are limits on how the report may be used in evidence (see pt 25.5).

Note 2     Giving false or misleading information to the public advocate or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people commissioner is an offence (see Criminal Code

, s 338).