A report by Victoria’s Commission for Children and Young People into the murder of 11-year-old Luke Batty will not be made public for the next five years, a coroner has ruled.
Luke was killed by his father, Greg Anderson, with a cricket bat and a knife on an oval in Tyabb, Victoria, in February. The inquest into his death, which began in October, is seeking to determine what, if anything, child protection officers, the judicial system and police could have done to prevent it.
The coroner, Ian Gray, agreed with the senior counsel Rachel Doyle, who is representing Luke’s mother Rosie Batty, that there was a strong public interest in releasing the commission’s report.
But this did not outweigh the importance of protecting the work and integrity of the commission, Gray said, amid fears that releasing its contents would deter child protection workers and bureaucrats from speaking out in future.
There was “considerable public interest in protecting the integrity of the commission’s process and work in promoting the safety of children in this very important system”, Gray said.
“This very strong interest ultimately outweighs the strong, but less strong, interest of public disclosure of this report from the commission.”
A lawyer representing Victoria’s Department of Human Services also argued the report was not directly relevant to the inquest into Luke’s death, and said releasing it may jeopardise how forthcoming people would be with information in future.
To date, Gray has suppressed only details of reports that might unfairly identify key witnesses. His decision on Wednesday prompted a brief outburst from one of the members of the public gallery, who walked out.
Had Gray released the commission’s report it would have set a precedent – no such reports into child deaths by the commission, established in March last year, have been released.
The government-funded commission is intended to be an independent agency that promotes the safety and wellbeing of children.
Dr Chris Atmore, a senior policy adviser at the Federation of Community Legal Centres in Victoria, said it was important to respect Gray’s ruling.
“However, it is difficult to see how the Victorian public will feel confident that children’s safety will be enhanced by the commission’s lessons from Luke Batty’s death and findings, when no one, apart from the commission, the coroner, and the barristers, will be able to see any aspect of the report for five years,” she said.
“The principal commissioner for children [Bernie Geary] was first off the blocks after Luke was killed in February, assuring the public that his death would be thoroughly reviewed.
“Now, while the report will inform the coroner’s thinking, it appears Victorians are expected to simply trust the internal workings of the commission in following up on its own findings.”
The report can also not be directly referred to in the cross-examination of witnesses.
On Wednesday afternoon Beth Allen, the assistant director of the Department of Human Services’ child protection unit, was questioned by Doyle about how risks of harm to a child and his or her mother in family violence cases was assessed by child protection officers.
Luke was known to child protection and had been questioned by staff after his father held up a knife to him, saying: “This could be the one to end it all.”
“It is impossible to record absolutely everything child protection do in formulating a decision and coming up with a risk-assessment outcome, otherwise they would be sitting at a computer more often than engaging with children and their families,” Allen said.
Doyle replied: “Surely there is a halfway house.”
The inquest continues.
