Commentary on Sections Disclosure of information Section 178 – Children’s hearing: disclosure of information
259.This section provides that a Children’s Hearing can withhold information about the child from a particular person if disclosing the information to that person would be likely to cause significant harm to the child. An example of such a situation would be where a relevant person was excluded from part of a hearing, and during that time, the child spoke of matters that if then shared with the relevant person might endanger the child. Section 178 applies despite any other statutory requirements to give the person an explanation of what took place at the hearing or to provide the person with information or the reasons for a decision made by the hearing.