Subjects: Gosling; Working with Children Checks.
MICHAEL WILLESEE JNR, HOST: A Federal Labor MP is facing criminal charges this morning, accused of assaulting the King's representative in the Northern Territory. Let's bring in Attorney-General Michelle Rowland, live from Darwin. Michelle, thanks for your time this morning. Luke Gosling, who has been charged with this assault, has denied the allegations. Should he remain, firstly, in the Labor Party and secondly, as the envoy for the envoy position that he holds?
MICHELLE ROWLAND, ATTORNEY-GENERAL: Well, as you can appreciate, because this matter is now before the court, I'm limited in what I can say. I'm happy to answer factual questions as to the particulars as I know them, but I won't be providing commentary in relation to this matter.
WILLESEE JNR: Well, it's more, it's not about the legal side of it, it's about the political side of it. I'm not asking you to make any comment about what may or may not have happened or the legal process. So, there's nothing actually preventing you from talking about whether he should remain as the Envoy to Defence and Veterans Affairs and whether in fact he should still be sitting in Parliament.
ROWLAND: Well, I understand your question, but again, I know you will appreciate that commentary around this matter is something that needs to be handled very seriously by myself as the First Law Officer of the Commonwealth and as this is a matter before the court, I'm applying the same principles that I apply when I'm asked about any matter before the court, and that is that I cannot give specific commentary or otherwise comment on specific cases.
WILLESEE JNR: Have you had a chance to speak to Luke Gosling since these charges were levelled?
ROWLAND: No, I have not.
WILLESEE JNR: Ok. You are in the Northern Territory at the moment talking now about Working with Children Checks. What are the changes you are proposing to make to these laws?
ROWLAND: Well, this is an important meeting today which I chair of the Standing Council of Attorneys-General. So, that's state and territory Attorneys-General right around the country and we have been working together for some time to improve the Working with Children Check system, which at the moment is quite disparate as between different jurisdictions. There is obviously a need for national consistency. I know that your viewers and every decent minded Australian would be horrified by the instances that we've seen, even in recent times, of children being abused, particularly in childcare centres. So, what I am looking forward to today is discussion and agreement to further those reforms, including establishing baselines for when people will be denied Working with Children Checks, making sure we've got minimum national standards for other factors that may go to risk of certain people holding those checks, and also information sharing as between different jurisdictions when it comes to Working with Children Check data. So, I'm optimistic and I thank my colleagues right around Australia who have worked together for the past 12 months to get to this point. We've had 'banned in one, banned in all' legislation now passed or introduced in every state and territory. We've got the National Continuous Checking Capability, which is a centralised IT system underway now funded by the Commonwealth in pilot stage. So, I'm optimistic that we can have substantial improvements in this area and I look forward to this meeting today concluding that.
WILLESEE JNR: Michelle, these look like pretty sensible reforms. Will they be enough to keep Australian children safe?
ROWLAND: There's always more to do, and I point to the fact that across the Government, including under my colleague, the Minister for Education, substantial reforms have taken place and will be taking place in future when it comes to childcare centres in those settings, including shutting down centres, withholding funding, banning mobile phones in centres. But there is always more to do because nothing is more important than protecting our children.
WILLESEE JNR: Indeed. Attorney-General Michelle Rowland, we appreciate your time this morning.
