The State Children Relief Act 1901 (61/1901) replaced the 1881 legislation by the same name and was the basis of most law to do with state children. It provided the State Children’s Relief Board with authority to direct the removal of state children; grant licences for the reception of state children as boarders; apprentice any…
The Reformatory and Industrial Schools Act 1901(38/1901) repealed the Colonial Reformatory Act and Destitute Children’s Act which had existed since 1866. This Act governed industrial schools and reformatories. The new Act retained the 1866 provisions for offenders under sixteen, and for vagrant and destitute children. It provided a court with the power to commit a…
The Children’s Protection Act 1892 [30/1892 (55 Vic. No.30)] was a broad-ranging Act that regulated the care of infants and children. It was a response to fears about ‘baby-farming’ and the sale of unwanted children. It made it an offence to charge a premium for arranging adoptions or to fail to report a stillbirth or…
The Infant Convicts Adoption Act 1901 (15/1901) was ‘An Act to consolidate the enactments providing for the care and education of infants who may be convicted of felony or misdemeanour’. It provided for any ‘infant’, aged below nineteen years and convicted of a felony or misdemeanour, to be assigned by the Court to the care…
The State Children Relief Act of 1881 [24/1881 (44 Vic. No.24)] created the State Children’s Relief Board [SCRB], a body of nine members that reported to the Colonial Secretary. Its task was to remove children from state-funded institutions and board them out, or foster them, with working class families. This Act enabled the SCRB to…
The Reformatory Schools Act 1866 (30 Victoria, Act No. 4, 1866) came into operation in 1869. Under the Act, any child under the age of sixteen who had been convicted of a criminal offence and sentenced to fourteen or more days imprisonment could be sent to a reformatory for one to five years. There were…
The Destitute Children Act [2/1866 (30 Vic. No.2)], also known as the Industrial Schools Act, enabled justices to send vagrant and destitute children under the age of eighteen to work as apprentices or be sent to industrial or reformatory schools. The Act was amended in 1870 to enable boys under the age of six to…
The Freedom of Information Act 1982 is Commonwealth legislation giving the Australian community rights of access to information held by the Government of the Commonwealth (or the Government of Norfolk Island). The FOI Act regulates regulates access to documents created by the Federal Government (not by state or territory government agencies).
The Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth) is an Australian law which regulates the handling of personal information about individuals. This includes the collection, use, storage and disclosure of personal information. In terms of access to records about an individual’s time in institutional ‘care’, the Commonwealth Privacy Act may be relevant to records held by a non-government…
The Aged Care Act 1997 is the legislation relating to the provision of aged care in Australia. From 1 December 2009, this Act has recognised ‘care leavers’ as a ‘special needs group’. This amendment is part of the Federal Government’s program to improve aged care for Forgotten Australians, in the wake of the Apology in…
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
