Coroners Act 2009

A senior coroner has jurisdiction to hold an inquest concerning the death or suspected death of a person if it appears to the coroner that the person was (or that there is reasonable cause to suspect that the person was)—

a child in care, or

a child in respect of whom a report was made under Part 2 of Chapter 3 of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 within the period of 3 years immediately preceding the child’s death, or

a child who is a sibling of a child in respect of whom a report was made under Part 2 of Chapter 3 of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 within the period of 3 years immediately preceding the child’s death, or

a child whose death is or may be due to abuse or neglect or that occurs in suspicious circumstances, or

a person (whether or not a child) who, at the time of the person’s death, was living in, or was temporarily absent from, specialist disability accommodation or an assisted boarding house, or

a person, other than a child in care, who—

is a person in the relevant group, and

receives assistance of a kind prescribed by the regulations from a service provider to enable the person to live independently in the community.

If jurisdiction to hold an inquest concerning the death of a child arises under this section or section 23, the senior coroner must use his or her best endeavours to notify the following persons of any right that they have to legal representation at the inquest—

the persons having parental responsibility for the child,

the child’s parents (if they do not have that responsibility),

such family members as would be reasonably expected to have an immediate interest in the outcome of the inquest.

In this section—

premises that would be an assisted boarding house within the meaning of that Act but for an exemption for the premises granted under section 40 of, or given by the regulations under, that Act, and

premises that were a residential centre for disabled persons (within the meaning of this section before it was amended by that Act) at the time of the death concerned.

who is under the parental responsibility of the Minister administering the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998, or

for whom the Secretary of the Department of Family and Community Services or a designated agency has the care responsibility under section 49 of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998, or

who is a protected person within the meaning of section 135A of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998, or

who is the subject of an out-of-home care arrangement under the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 or the Children’s Guardian Act 2019, or

who is in specialised substitute residential care within the meaning of the Children’s Guardian Act 2019, or

who is the subject of a sole parental responsibility order under section 149 of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998, or

who is otherwise in the care of a service provider.

enrolled under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Specialist Disability Accommodation) Rules 2020 of the Commonwealth, section 26, and

that is, or is a type of premises, prescribed by the regulations to be specialist disability accommodation, and

that is not, or is not a type of premises, prescribed by the regulations to not be specialist disability accommodation.