It is clear families, and our most vulnerable Victorians, have been repeatedly failed.
The Labor Government has known of significant shortcomings in Working with Children Checks and other safeguards for years but has failed to implement meaningful reform.
In 2022, the Ombudsman urged the Labor Government to strengthen Victoria's Working with Children Check scheme.
This failure has left Victoria behind other jurisdictions and has placed children at heightened risk.
Today, confirmation that Ministers from Commonwealth and State Governments knew of the alleged offending at least five days before informing families and the broader community has further jeopardised the safety of children and community confidence in the system.
This situation is every parent's worst nightmare, and it is clear the Allan Labor Government has failed in its duty to do all it can to ensure the safety of children in childcare settings.
The Victorian Liberals and Nationals stand ready to work with the Government and Parliament to provide all necessary support to affected families and to take urgent action to strengthen Working with Children safeguards and child safety regulations. It's clear that the practical implementation of current standards at the operator level is failing.
Leader of the Opposition, Brad Battin, said Labor was repeatedly warned about flaws in the system.
"Labor was told there were gaping holes in child safety protections, and it failed to act," Mr Battin said.
"Enough is enough. The safety of children should be the priority.
"The Premier - who sat at the Cabinet table as a senior minister during years of inaction - now claims she wasn't briefed. But the record is clear: multiple independent reports have highlighted failings in the Working with Children Check system and called for urgent reform.
"Key recommendations to address risk assessments, cross-agency communication, and national criminal history gaps were ignored."
"Unless someone has a criminal conviction, they are likely to pass a Working with Children Check. In fact, it is easier in Victoria to get a Working with Children Check than it is to obtain a Responsible Service of Alcohol certificate."
Shadow Minister for Education, Jess Wilson, said parents of the children impacted should have been told immediately.
"It is sickening to think that the government knew about this, days before the parents of affected children were informed about the allegations and health risks," Ms Wilson said.
"Parents have a right to know if their children have been put at risk or been the victim of an alleged incident in childcare, and it is inconceivable that they were not notified before Education Ministers across the nation.
"The Allan Labor Government has failed parents, families and children by ignoring repeated warnings to strengthen child safety checks and improve standards.
"Now is the time for action. There are immediate steps that can be taken to improve our child safety laws, and the government needs to implement them without delay.
"Families deserve justice and a government that prioritises child safety."
Background:
- In September 2022, the Victorian Ombudsman recommended legislative reforms to allow authorities to suspend or revoke WWCCs based on risk factors, even without criminal charges. The Labor Government ignored and never implemented this recommendation.
- In 2023, the Department of Justice and Community Safety (DJCS) briefed the Attorney-General that around 157,000 WWCC applicants had not had their status communicated to their nominated organisations due to a catastrophic system error.
- Of those, 69 applicants had been permanently or temporarily barred from child-related work, yet their exclusion was not disclosed. It is still unclear whether all of these applicants were contacted and if any were found to be engaging in child-related work.
- The government has still not confirmed whether this system failure has been fixed.
- The Commissioner for Children and Young People publicly stated: "Victorian authorities failed to protect the most vulnerable children from sexual predators."
- There has been a 69.41 per cent increase in child sexual offences in the last year alone, and a 228.72 per cent increase over the past decade.
- Despite these warnings and failures, no departmental response was ever issued to the Ombudsman's findings.
