Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (11:18): The contribution we have just heard today I think is from the socialist republic of the Labor government, and it would seem that all private industry, all private business and all private childcare centres are indeed part of the abomination of an industry. I reject that point and I also reject the government member just now speaking about a ‘rapid review’ – a ‘rapid review’ that has taken three years to come to fruition; a ‘rapid review’ that is not serving the most vulnerable of Victorians, our children. I stand here to support our Liberal and National motion for a referral to the Victorian Ombudsman of this very important issue to the quality assessment and regulation division – QARD, as I will refer to it.
This government is world class in finger pointing: ‘Look over there, but don’t look in the mirror.’ It is atrocious that we have seen some shocking allegations of child sexual abuse at a number of childcare centres presented to the Victorian public and the government is still obfuscating its responsibility. It is still not looking at actions to close dangerous loopholes after the Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass, back in 2022, laid out very clearly a pathway forward to reform this system. This government has completely, unacceptably not looked in the mirror. It is unacceptable that enforcement actions have declined while complaints have increased. Parents deserve confidence. I take up Ms Crozier’s very apt point in her speech about the lack of trust that parents, children and families have in this system, and it is not fair on those who work in the system as well. They deserve to know that they are coming and the work that they do supports families, Victorian prosperity and the economy to grow children safely so that parents can go about their business and work. They need that trust, they need that safety, and this government is obfuscating its responsibility. Indeed we know that, very shockingly, an alleged perpetrator is now looking at 70 charges after having worked in the system for eight years and being allegedly employed across 23 childcare centres. The devastation that that is causing those families and those children is simply unfair.
The government introduced child safe standards in 2006, and I have spoken on this a number of times in relation to the disability sector. Many in that sector feel that this is a policy statement rather than an embedded action in all of the areas of education – in this case, child care and nurturing environments. We see also that the quality assessment and regulation division, QARD, is a division of the Department of Education, yet this government’s own investigation – ‘rapid review’, as we have heard it called – is not looking at its own homework. It is not looking at its internal department. You cannot stand up here and hand on heart say you are making a difference if you are not going to investigate some of the issues around regulation and safeguarding frameworks. It is just an abomination.
We saw that the Victorian Ombudsman – I had the pleasure nine years ago of meeting Deborah Glass – acted without fear or favour. I think she viewed all members of Parliament with scepticism, and we took that on board, because her role was about finding out the truth and delivering comment to government and recommendations to government – and boy, did she find out some things back in 2022 in the review of working with children checks. Certainly she exposed that the system had serious flaws in the way it was managed, particularly around information sharing and revocation delays. Her findings included that there was limited access to intelligence and that Working with Children Checks Victoria could not access interstate child protection reports, intervention orders or unprosecuted allegations. The system relied almost exclusively on criminal charges, so it had to get to a point where the police were called in and there were, as we have seen, criminal charges laid before there was serious consideration. We saw from the Ombudsman the recommendations that she made to expand the powers of Working with Children Checks Victoria. She stated that they were some of the worst in the nation. Her foreword from that report indicates that Victoria’s working with children’s check laws are ‘among the most limited in Australia’. They do not allow consideration of child protection reports or other relevant information unless it results in a criminal charge.
This just highlights how flawed the system was and still is three years later – and the government is calling it a rapid review. The Ombudsman also spoke about improved interagency coordination between police, child protection services and employees. It also called for faster response times and stronger oversight of high-risk individuals. We have seen those individuals in the most alarming and concerning way for our children. What the government needs to look at it is why it is actually doing an internal review without looking at QARD. It is just mind-boggling that it thinks that is acceptable.
What have we seen from the Liberals and Nationals? I put on record my thanks to our Shadow Minister for Education and Shadow Attorney-General for the depth of thorough work they have done and not only that but coming up with solutions for this situation for very vulnerable people. I will not mention other than briefly my thoughts around this as I am a new grandmother and my grandchild is not in this state – I might have to say on this case that it is sad for me – but the system in New South Wales is far stronger in relation to this. Those children are the most precious resource we have in our nation, and they deserve the maximum amount of protection and safeguarding, which this government has not implemented.
In relation to our Worker Screening Amendment (Safety of Children) Bill 2025, which we put forward in the lower house and which the Premier decided to reject, we tabled it and first read it today. We are going to then put it on the notice paper for debate as a private member’s bill for the Liberals and Nationals, for the whole of the state, and this house should be looking to adopt it. I also thank, in this case, the Greens for their consideration. They have got a motion up ahead that needs to be dealt with in a positive fashion by this house. It is important that we strengthen this. It is important that there be expanded grounds for refusal of working with children. It is important that there is law enforcement integration. It is important that there is a shortened validity period. We were going to reduce that for people working in the industry – not for those who volunteer at their netball club – to three years, because a lot can happen in five years. It is important that there be mandatory training and that applicants must complete online mandatory training on child sexual abuse and other forms. This is the sort of rigour that the Liberals and Nationals want to put in. We understand that trust in the system has been broken.
We understand that rather than taking an apolitical, focused point of view and having an independent understanding, we are putting this forward for the Ombudsman. In actual fact I have worked for almost a decade in the education sector. I have worked with fantastic kids and with fantastic teachers in the state sector, but it is not immune. It is not just the private schools or the private childcare centres that have these types of allegations and types of incidents and types of concerns. There are many people that I have spoken to in my time here about our education sector, and we did an inquiry into the education system that threw up a lot of alarm bells across the board. We want to ensure that our children are learning, our children are safe and our children are nurtured, and this government is obfuscating its responsibility. What this government is doing over this case is political issue management versus child safety. This government is looking to mitigate that fallout rather than embrace child safety. If it did, it would have acted on the Ombudsman’s report three years ago. If it did, it would have included the QARD in its inquiry.
