Automatic Mutual Recognition (Victoria) (Significant Risk Exemption—Teacher and Early Childhood Teacher Registration) Declaration 2022

Administered by Department of Employment and Workplace Relations

Legislation au F2022L00821 In force Legislative Instrument

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EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Mutual Recognition Act 1992

Automatic Mutual Recognition (Victoria) (Temporary Exemption – Teachers and Early Childhood Teachers) Declaration 2022

This explanatory statement provides notes on the operation of the Automatic Mutual Recognition (Victoria) (Significant Risk Exemption—Teacher and Early Childhood Teacher Registration) Declaration 2022 (Declaration). The specific provisions in the Declaration are outlined in Attachment A. The information in the explanatory statement is an aid to understanding the Declaration and should not be substituted for the Declaration.

Context and purpose

Part 3A of the Mutual Recognition Act 1992 of the Commonwealth (the MRA) provides for the automatic mutual recognition of occupational registrations (AMR). AMR will provide an entitlement for an individual to carry on an activity in a second State under the registration covering the activity in their home State through Automatic Deemed Registration (ADR).   

Section 42S of the MRA provides that a Minister of a State may declare, by legislative instrument, that a specified registration, whether for an occupation or for an activity covered by an occupation, in the declaration State is excluded from the operation of ADR if the Minister is satisfied that the declaration is necessary because of a significant risk, arising from particular circumstances or conditions in the declaration State, to the health or safety of the public.

The Automatic Mutual Recognition (Victoria) (Temporary Exemption—Various) Declaration 2021 temporarily exempted certain registrations for occupations, or for activities covered by occupations, from ADR provisions of the MRA until 1 July 2021. Teacher and early childhood teacher registration was included in the temporary exemption declaration on the basis that information sharing powers among state and territory teacher regulatory authorities were inadequate, inconsistent and created potential risks to the health and safety of children attending Victorian schools or early childhood services.

Whilst relevant jurisdictions have been participating in actions to reduce current information sharing limitations and improve information sharing between teacher regulatory authorities, the temporary delay has not provided sufficient time for information sharing issues between regulatory authorities to be adequately resolved to reduce or remove any risks to child safety caused by the AMR scheme.

A 3-year exemption will allow more time to establish the necessary information sharing arrangements and frameworks to support implementation of AMR for the teacher and early childhood teacher profession.

The Legislation Act 2003 of the Commonwealth provides for the making of legislative instruments.

Summary

Through this Declaration, the Minister for Education in Victoria is excluding all registrations for teachers and early childhood teachers under Part 2.6 of the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 from the operation of ADR for the period 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2025.

Consultation

Targeted consultation was completed with Victorian education stakeholders. The majority of stakeholder responses support the 3-year exemption for teachers and early childhood teachers. Comprehensive consultation with Victorian education stakeholders was undertaken in 2021 as part of the development of the Mutual Recognition Amendment Bill 2021 and issues of concern raised as part of that consultation continue to be relevant and critical to the decision to seek a further delay to the commencement of the AMR Scheme for teachers and early childhood teachers.


Attachment A

Details of the Automatic Mutual Recognition (Victoria) (Significant Risk Exemption—Teacher and Early Childhood Teacher Registration) Declaration 2022

Part 1 – Preliminary

Section 1 – Name

This section provides that this Declaration is to be cited as the Automatic Mutual Recognition (Victoria) (Significant Risk Exemption—Teacher and Early Childhood Teacher Registration) Declaration 2022 (the Declaration).

Section 2 – Commencement

This section provides the date on which the Declaration comes into operation. The Declaration commences on 1 July 2022.

Section 3 – Authority

This section outlines the authority through which the Declaration is made. The Declaration is made under section 42S of the Mutual Recognition Act 1992 (Commonwealth).

Section 4 – Simplified outline of the instrument

This section explains that the purpose of this instrument to exempt the teaching and early childhood teaching occupations, and activities covered by those occupations, from the ADR provisions of the MRA until 1 July 2025 due to the significant risk to the health or safety of children attending Victorian schools and early childhood services as members of the public.

Section 5 – Definitions

This section provides, for the purposes of this Declaration, self-explanatory definitions of the following term:

-          Act is defined in this section as meaning the Mutual Recognition Act 1992

Section 6 – Significant risk exemption

This section lists the specific paragraph of the MRA relied on to make the Declaration and the specific registrations excluded from ADR.

For the purposes of paragraph 42S(1)(a) of the MRA, the following registrations are excluded from the operation of ADR in Victoria:

(a)    registrations under Part 2.6 of the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 of Victoria including:

  1. registration as a teacher under Division 3 of that Part;
  2. registration as an early childhood teacher under Division 3A of that Part.

This section also contains a statement explaining the risk that the declaration is seeking to protect against, for the purposes of section 42S(2) of the Act, namely,  potential risks to child health and safety if automatic deemed registration were to become operational in Victoria.

 

The Hon. James Merlino

Minister for Education

Overview

The Automatic Mutual Recognition (Victoria) (Significant Risk Exemption—Teacher and Early Childhood Teacher Registration) Declaration 2022 is a legislative instrument enacted to address the issue of inadequate information sharing between teacher regulatory authorities in Victoria and other jurisdictions. This Declaration, made under Section 42S of the Mutual Recognition Act 1992, temporarily exempts teacher and early childhood teacher registrations in Victoria from the automatic mutual recognition of occupational registrations until 30 June 2025. The decision follows the Automatic Mutual Recognition (Victoria) (Temporary Exemption—Various) Declaration 2021, which initially exempted these registrations until 1 July 2021. The extended exemption aims to provide more time to establish the necessary information sharing arrangements and frameworks to adequately address the risks to child health and safety posed by the automatic mutual recognition scheme. The Declaration was developed following targeted consultation with Victorian education stakeholders, the majority of whom support the extension of the exemption. The policy objective of this Declaration is to protect against potential risks to the health and safety of children attending Victorian schools or early childhood services by ensuring that sufficient information sharing mechanisms are in place before the automatic mutual recognition scheme is implemented for teachers and early childhood teachers in Victoria. The exemption allows for continued efforts to improve information sharing among state and territory teacher regulatory authorities, thereby mitigating the significant risk to public health and safety identified in the Declaration.

Scope and Application

The Automatic Mutual Recognition (Victoria) (Significant Risk Exemption—Teacher and Early Childhood Teacher Registration) Declaration 2022, made under section 42S of the Mutual Recognition Act 1992, excludes all registrations for teachers and early childhood teachers under Part 2.6 of the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 from the operation of Automatic Deemed Registration for the period from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2025. This exclusion is due to a significant risk to the health and safety of children attending Victorian schools or early childhood services. The Declaration aims to address inadequate, inconsistent, and potentially risky information sharing between state and territory teacher regulatory authorities, which has not been sufficiently resolved despite previous temporary measures. The exemption is limited to the teaching and early childhood teaching occupations and activities covered by those occupations in Victoria, as defined in the Declaration. It is important to note that this Declaration does not alter the application of other provisions of the Mutual Recognition Act 1992 and remains in effect until 30 June 2025, subject to any further legislative amendments.

Key Provisions

The Automatic Mutual Recognition (Victoria) (Significant Risk Exemption—Teacher and Early Childhood Teacher Registration) Declaration 2022 (the Declaration) primarily operates under section 42S of the Mutual Recognition Act 1992 (MRA) to exclude specific teacher and early childhood teacher registrations in Victoria from Automatic Deemed Registration (ADR) until 30 June 2025 (Section 4). The Declaration specifies that the registrations excluded from ADR include those under Part 2.6 of the Education and Training Reform Act 2006, such as registrations as a teacher and an early childhood teacher (Section 6). This exclusion is due to the identified significant risk to the health and safety of children attending Victorian schools or early childhood services, which is the main concern addressed by the Declaration (Section 6). The obligations and requirements imposed by the Declaration on the parties and entities it governs revolve around ensuring that the significant risk to child health and safety identified in the Declaration is adequately managed. For the duration of the exemption, teachers and early childhood teachers from other states will not be automatically recognised in Victoria without undergoing the usual registration processes. This is aimed at safeguarding the welfare of children by ensuring that those teaching in Victorian schools or early childhood services have met the specific regulatory standards and information sharing protocols of the Victorian education authorities. The Declaration itself does not explicitly outline specific offences, penalties, or civil/criminal consequences for breaches. However, any breaches of the terms or conditions related to the teaching and early childhood teaching professions would be subject to the general regulatory and enforcement provisions under the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 and other relevant state laws. These could include sanctions such as fines, suspension, or revocation of registration, depending on the severity and nature of the breach. The exact penalties would be determined in accordance with the relevant state laws governing teacher and early childhood teacher registration.

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