The Victorian Liberals and Nationals today announce a new six-point plan to keep children safe and begin restoring community confidence in Victoria's childcare system.
Under the Allan Labor Government, repeated warnings have been ignored and serious deficiencies across the sector remain unaddressed. As a result, children have been - and continue to be - placed at unacceptable risk.
Since 2018, complaints to the regulator, the Quality Assessment and Regulation Division (QARD), have increased by 45 per cent, while enforcement actions have dropped by 67 per cent.
This is unacceptable. Parents deserve answers, children deserve protection, and Victorians deserve leadership.
Despite repeated calls for urgent action, the Allan Labor Government has refused to recall Parliament and has instead launched another review designed to manage political fallout rather than deliver real reform.
In response, the Victorian Liberals and Nationals are putting forward a clear plan for immediate, practical reforms to improve safety in childcare settings across the state. These urgent reforms include:
- Fix the Working With Children Check (WWCC): Close WWCC loopholes by empowering assessors to act on any information relevant to a person's suitability to work with children.
Give parents the right to know: Give parents access to live centre-by-centre safety, compliance and performance data.
Raise the bar on workforce standards: Establish a central register of all early childhood workers.
Create an independent childcare safety watchdog: Establish an independent regulator to prevent, investigate, enforce and report misconduct in a transparent and accountable way.
Ban personal phones and install CCTV: Immediately ban personal phones from childcare centres and work with operators to implement secure CCTV as appropriate.
Link federal funding to safety: Work with the Commonwealth Government to tie childcare subsidies to safety performance, ensuring centres with strong records are rewarded and those that fail are held accountable. This model is already in place in aged care and schools - and the same principle should apply to early learning.
The Victorian Liberals and Nationals stand ready to work with the State Parliament to pass legislation to implement these urgently needed reforms at the earliest possible opportunity.
Leader of the Opposition, Brad Battin, said: "This is about doing what Labor has failed to do, act decisively to protect children and restore trust in our childcare system."
"Our reform of the childcare system is driven by what is in the best interests of children and their parents."
Shadow Minister for Education, Jess Wilson, said: "We have designed practical, immediate reforms that will improve safety in every early learning setting.
"The system is broken because Labor failed to act. We won't wait. We have a plan, and we are ready to deliver it. Children's safety is our priority."
