A national working with children’s check system could take up to 12 months to set up, the federal attorney-general said, as Anthony Albanese decried the current industry safeguards as “hopeless”.
Ahead of a meeting of the nation’s attorneys-general on Friday, Michelle Rowland said the group’s “most immediate and urgent” priority was to create a system that ensured those working with children who were “banned in one” state were “banned in all”.
But she admitted it could take a year to put the necessary information-sharing arrangements in place.
“I would like to think this is something that is certainly capable of being done within certainly the next 12 months,” Rowland told ABC Radio National on Friday morning. “If we can have a better sense of that following today’s meeting, that would be a good thing.”
Working with children checks are administered at the state level, but a string of cases of alleged child abuse at daycare centres has prompted calls to establish a national system.
She said the delay was due to fragmentation, “complex” IT systems and different laws and regulations in each state and territory.
“They need to make sure that they can affect those legislative changes they need to ensure that their IT systems are brought up to scratch,” Rowland said. “But again, the fact that we’re coming together today with the intense desire to make sure that we achieve a better system, is what Australians are looking for.”
In 2015, the royal commission into child abuse delivered a specific report on working with children checks (WWCCs) and urged shifting to a national system. A Victorian ombudsman report in 2022 also highlighted “serious flaws” with the state’s WWCC system and urged several reforms, which are yet to be implemented.
But the issue has come under renewed scrutiny in recent months after Melbourne childcare worker was charged with more than 70 offences relating to eight alleged victims in his care.
At the time of his arrest in May, the employee had a valid working with children’s check, despite his employment being terminated by several centres.
There have been several media reports since of glaring issues with the regulation of the WWCCs since.
On Friday, the prime minister was asked why an ABC report earlier in the week – about a male childcare worker accused of grooming children and later banned from working in childcare – had not led to his working with children check being revoked.
“[The system is] hopeless, and we need to do better. Quite clearly. And these revelations are a wake up call for state and territory governments in terms of the regulations, but also the Commonwealth,” Albanese told ABC Radio Melbourne.
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, said the delay was “completely unsatisfactory”.
“The PM has talked a big game on fixing these issues but 12 months to deliver this isn’t good enough,” she said in a statement.
“We need stronger leadership on this issue, and the states and territories must be forced to act faster,” she added.
The shadow attorney-general, Julian Leeser, said, “Asking mums and dads to wait for a year just doesn’t meet community expectations.”
Since the Victorian allegations were made public, the federal government has fast-tracked legislation through parliament to cut funding to childcare centres that fail to meet safety standards.
Education minister Jason Clare announced on Friday that his department had initiated compliance actions against 30 early childhood education and care services identified by the department as having failed to meet national quality standards “over seven or more years”.
The enforcement actions don’t relate to child abuse or criminal allegations – but go to issues including play area safety, hygiene, staff training and supervision.
The 30 centres have 48 hours to tell parents about the actions, and the names of the centres will be published by the department on Tuesday. They then have six months to improve their standards, or risk having their access to the childcare subsidy suspended or cancelled.
The Victorian government, meanwhile, has ordered an urgent review of childcare safety, led by former South Australian premier Jay Weatherill and senior bureaucrat Pamela White. Their report, which is expected to recommend reforms to WWCCs, is due to be handed to government on Friday.
