Rachel requested the immediate tabling of documents relating to the Department of Government Services 2025 initial review of Victoria’s working with children scheme. Recent news has called attention to child abuse cases within the childcare sector, perpetrated by workers who held valid working with children checks. This has emphasised the overdue need for reform of the Victorian working with children check system.
Wednesday the 30th of July 2025,
Victorian Legislative Council
Rachel Payne (South-Eastern Metropolitan):
I move:
That this house, in accordance with standing order 10.01, requires the Leader of the Government to table in the Council, within 30 days of the house agreeing to this resolution, documents relating to the Department of Government Services 2025 initial review of Victoria’s working with children scheme, including but not limited to all reports and draft reports.
Recent news of a childcare worker in Melbourne’s south-east being charged with more than 70 offences against children in his care has horrified and shocked Victorians. Disturbingly, this person was able to hold a valid working with children check. Evidently this system is broken. The best time it could have been fixed was before this abuse happened. The second-best time is now. I want to acknowledge the Australian Childhood Foundation and survivor Emma Hakansson, who have been calling for governments across Australia to embed mandatory child abuse prevention education in working with children checks for some time now. I also thank Emma for the support that she has provided me in understanding this issue further.
Unfortunately, it was not these calls that led to the initial review that is the subject of this motion. Instead we understand that this review commenced following the ABC’s investigation into Victoria’s working with children check scheme, highlighting it as the weakest in the country. Victoria’s scheme does not allow for consideration of evidence of abuse or concerning behaviour that has not resulted in a criminal charge or a disciplinary or regulatory finding, unlike all other states and territories. This reporting included stories of disturbing educator misconduct. This misconduct caused the educator to be fired. Because police did not have to press charges it made no difference to their ability to hold a working with children check. In some cases, educators with multiple separate investigations into their behaviour have been allowed to continue to work in childcare centres.
While we welcome the announcement that from August the department’s screening can take into account prohibition notices, including from the Department of Education, when determining or revoking a person’s permit, there is still much more to be done. Children are some of the most vulnerable members of our society. They deserve to feel safe and be protected. The Australian child maltreatment study paints a bleak picture of how well we are doing at this. This study found almost three in 10 Australians over the age of 16 had endured child sexual abuse, equating to approximately 4.5 million individuals. For most people, it rarely happens once and it is someone known to them. Experiences of child sexual abuse have lifelong and wide-reaching, devastating consequences mentally, physically and socially. It is unacceptable that our working with children check scheme is a tick-box exercise. Essentially, as long as you have not already been charged with abusing a child, you get approved. This does little to stop people who seek out these industries to prey on young people.
It was disappointing to see the Victorian government fail to respond to the Greens documents motion that would require them to publish details of enforcement actions against childcare operators. This information will provide transparency on the state’s childcare crisis and must be responded to urgently. My adjournment request to the Premier in February, asking her to call for a nationally harmonised working with children check that includes mandatory child abuse prevention education, also remains unanswered. Crimes like this can be prevented, and we must all do better.
The former Victorian children’s commissioner, the Victorian Ombudsman, the Australian Childhood Foundation, victim-survivors and MPs across party lines have all been calling for change to working with children checks for years. It is shameful that this government has sat on its hands for so long and allowed this broken system to continue. Why did it take so many children getting hurt for there to be finally movement on this? All the way back in 2015, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse made it clear that the working with children system in Australia was inconsistent and complex and required immediate changes to stop predators. We recognise the government’s urgent review into child safety in early childhood education and care settings and the working with children check in Victoria, and we understand that a final report is being handed down on 15 August this year, but time is of the essence.
It is for these reasons that we request documents relating to the Department of Government Services’ 2025 initial review of Victoria’s working with children scheme, including but not limited to all reports and draft reports, be published. We urge the government to comply with this request. Transparency is the first step in improving this system for our young people.
Motion agreed to.
Related:
> Working with children check system needs national reform – Rachel Payne
> Working with Children Checks – Rachel Payne
> Vicarious liability law reform must be comprehensive – Rachel Payne
