Australia's National Children's Commissioner has commended the Australian Government's leadership on urgent child safety reforms agreed at today's historic meeting of education ministers across the federation.
National, state and territory ministers met in Sydney today to commit to a trial of CCTV and rollout of mobile phone bans in childcare centres, a mandatory National Educator Register, and mandatory child safety training for everyone involved in the childcare sector, including management.
Other measures, including reforms to the Working With Children Check system, are also part of a coordinated national response from our governments across the federation following allegations of distressing abuse of vulnerable children in childcare centres as well as media reporting on significant systems failures in the childcare sector, leading to extensive community outrage across the country.
National Children's Commissioner Anne Hollonds: 'Today's urgent meeting of education ministers across the country shows the importance of strong leadership from the Australian Government to fast-track the implementation of child safety measures across the federation, many of which have been recommended in previous inquiries.
"I support the new measures that have been announced and I commend Australian Early Childhood Education Minister Jess Walsh and Education Minister Jason Clare for bringing state and territory ministers together to overcome the barriers to reform that our federal system creates.
'The national reforms announced today reinforce the need for leaders across the federation to work together 'as a team' on child safety and wellbeing, as was noted a week ago by Australian General Michelle Rowland, whose landmark meeting of Attorneys-General agreed to implement recommendations on improving the Working With Children Check system dating back to 2015.
'There is clearly lot more work that needs to be done to restore public confidence in our childcare industry and I urge our national, state and territory leaders to continue this newfound willingness and urgency to work together on improving child wellbeing.
'Rolling scandals in the childcare sector have revealed the current systems are geared to protecting adults and government administrators, not the vulnerable children in their care.
'As recommended by the Victorian Rapid Child Safety Review on Wednesday, the safety, rights and best interests of children must be the paramount consideration.
'This guiding principle needs to underpin all future actions by leaders across the federation in order to ensure that child safety and wellbeing is a national priority, not just in the childcare sector but in the child protection and child justice sectors too, and that governments are held accountable for protecting our youngest citizens.'
Read the Commission's Help Way Earlier report about improving the safety and wellbeing of children caught up in the child justice system:
