Federal government to fast-track childcare safety legislation as Victoria appoints Jay Weatherill to conduct snap review of sector

The Guardian

2 days ago

The federal government will fast-track legislation in the next sitting week to cut funding to childcare centres that fail to meet safety standards, after shocking allegations of sexual abuse by a worker in Melbourne's western suburbs.
It comes as the Victorian government announced former South Australian premier Jay Weatherill and senior bureaucrat Pamela White have been appointed to lead an urgent review of childcare safety.
The review was set up on Wednesday after it was revealed on Tuesday that Joshua Dale Brown had been charged with sexually abusing eight children, aged between five months and two years old, in his care.
The case has sparked widespread outrage and intensified pressure on both federal and state governments to act swiftly, particularly as concerns about safety in the childcare system had already been raised earlier this year.
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The federal education minister, Jason Clare, is preparing to introduce new laws to parliament in the first sitting week, beginning on 22 July. Designed to strengthen regulatory and enforcement powers to putting profit over child safety, they will prevent providers persistently failing to meet minimum standards from opening new centres, and cut off childcare subsidy funding for repeat offender operators and those guilty of egregious breaches.
New powers will also be introduced to deal with providers that pose integrity risks and introduce new powers of entry to give authorised officers under the Family Assistance Law to conduct spot checks and unannounced visits at centres. Currently they require a warrant or for Australian federal police officers to accompany them.
The Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority's 2023/24 annual report shows that 1,599 childcare centres – about 10% of all providers – were rated as 'working towards' meeting the regulatory standards. It remains unclear whether these centres would immediately lose funding under the proposed federal changes.
It comes after the Victorian minister for children, Lizzie Blandthorn, criticised of the 'frustratingly slow' progress on national reforms and the lack of federal funding for state regulators since 2018.
State and federal education ministers last week agreed more funding for regulators may be considered in the future.
'We all agree it's taken too bloody long, and we're determined to act here,' Clare told Channel Seven's Sunrise on Thursday.
The Greens, however, are calling on a federal independent early childhood commission to regulate the sector and act as a watchdog, as recommended by the Productivity Commission's 2024 review into the sector.
In a letter to the prime minister, their early education spokesperson, Steph Hodgins-May, said such a commission would work with state and territory governments to enforce quality standards and have the power to crack down on rogue childcare operators and shut down unsafe centres.
'We already have world leading national quality standards, but standards alone are not enough. For them to mean anything, they must be backed by a regulator and clear accountability,' she said.
Meanwhile, the Victorian government's review will be led by Weatherill, who now serves as executive director of democracy at the Susan McKinnon Foundation and previously led the Minderoo Foundation's Thrive by Five early learning reform campaign, and White, who has held senior roles across the Victorian public service for three decades.
White has worked across child protection, disability, housing, youth justice, emergency management and education and currently chairs the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority and serves on the board of the Country Fire Authority.
The review will report back by 15 August and the premier, Jacinta Allan, has pledged to adopt all recommendations and implement them 'as quickly as possible'.
'I say again: this is a criminal matter and I won't say or do anything that could jeopardise the process for justice,' Allan said.
'My government will take every action possible – as soon as possible – to strengthen safety standards in early childhood education and care, to keep Victorian children safe.'
The government on Wednesday announced it will develop its own childcare worker registration system as it waits for a national scheme to be established. It will also require all childcare centres to adopt the federal ban on personal devices by 26 September or face fines up to $50,000.
The shadow attorney general, Michael O'Brien, said Victoria should also follow New South Wales in removing the right to appeal denied working with children checks, citing a 2022 ombudsman report that described the state's laws as 'some of the weakest in the nation'.