Federal officials grilled over delay in national Working with Children Check overhaul following abuse allegations
The Attorney-General’s Department has revealed it took almost two months to get state governments on board for Working with Children Check reforms, following allegations of widespread sexual abuse across Victorian childcare centres by Joshua Dale Brown.
Deputy chair of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee Claire Chandler has grilled the A-G Department’s secretary over why it took six weeks for a meeting between state and federal representatives to take place.
The meeting followed an investigation into a slew of alleged sexual assaults by childcare worker Joshua Brown across 23 childcare centres in Victoria.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.The Liberal senator asked why the department delayed “incredibly urgent discussions over child safety for over six weeks”.
“In order to be able to get agreement between the states and territories on concrete proposals that could be implemented, obviously, there was a lot of work that needed to happen ahead of that meeting,” Secretary Katherine Jones said.
“One thing to recognise is that every jurisdiction has in place slightly different regimes around Working with Children checks.
“To be able to work through the complexities of the different regimes and the issues that needed to be addressed, to be able to get a national approach to negative checks, was incredibly challenging.”
The Department has also put the burden on legislating a national register to prevent bad actors in the childcare sector from moving across state lines, onto the states and territories.
“I’d go the decision from the Attorneys-General Standing Council, which was agree to urgently work towards implementation by the end of 2025, that was the decision all nine Attorneys-General took,” first assistant secretary Chris Collett said.
“The key changes to implement that are not Commonwealth changes they are specific to certain jurisdictions.
“The Commonwealth’s role in this particular space is one of facilitation, leadership and co-ordination if you will.”
The department said it had received assurances that state governments were “urgently” working towards implementing the register by 2025, with the secretary saying her department was “relatively confident” it would achieve that deadline.
