New South Wales Consolidated Acts

CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS (CARE AND PROTECTION) ACT 1998 - SECT 106A

106A Admissibility of certain other evidence

(1) The Children’s Court must admit in proceedings before it any evidence adduced that a parent or primary care-giver of a child or young person the subject of a care application:

(a) is a person:

(i) from whose care and protection a child or young person was previously removed by a court under this Act or the Children (Care and Protection) Act 1987 , or by a court of another jurisdiction under an Act of that jurisdiction, and

(ii) to whose care and protection the child or young person has not been restored, or

(b) is a person who has been named or otherwise identified by the coroner or a police officer (whether by use of the term “person of interest” or otherwise) as a person who may have been involved in causing a reviewable death of a child or young person.

(2) Evidence adduced under subsection (1) is prima facie evidence that the child or young person the subject of the care application is in need of care and protection.

(3) A parent or primary care-giver in respect of whom evidence referred to in subsection (1) has been adduced may rebut the prima facie evidence referred to in subsection (2) by satisfying the Children’s Court that, on the balance of probabilities:

(a) the circumstances that gave rise to the previous removal of the child or young person concerned no longer exist, or

(b) the parent or primary care-giver concerned was not involved in causing the relevant reviewable death of the child or young person,

as the case may require.

(4) This section has effect despite section 93 and despite anything to the contrary in the Evidence Act 1995 .

(5) In this section, "reviewable death of a child or young person" means a death of a child or young person that is reviewable by the Ombudsman under Part 6 of the Community Services (Complaints, Reviews and Monitoring) Act 1993 .