‘A moment of reckoning’: Recent developments in Victoria’s child safety framework

Child safety in Victoria’s early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector has been in the spotlight for many years, but reached a crisis point in July 2025 after two men were charged with over 200 offences relating to abuse against children in ECEC centres in Melbourne’s west. The Victorian Government responded to the charges with a rapid review of the state’s child safety laws, including worker screening and information-sharing provisions, among other issues within the legislative and regulatory framework. In recognition of their shared responsibilities for ECEC, federal, state and territory governments also reached agreements to coordinate cohesive legislative and regulatory responses on a national level.

Four Victorian Acts were passed between August and December 2025 addressing worker screening vulnerabilities and introducing more substantive reforms—including a new independent early childhood regulatory authority, a register of early childhood workers and the removal of worker screening from the Department of Education to an independent regulator. Complementary reforms are planned for introduction in other jurisdictions.

This paper summarises the events and discussions that have resulted in these reforms to the ECEC sector. While the charges in July brought urgency for reforms, a number of reports have highlighted sector failings across several states, going as far back as 2015 to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The paper also outlines the key issues that were identified in these reports that have compounded the need for reform, including the complexity of regulation in the sector, the need for more workforce training, improved information-sharing and other aspects. Finally, each of the four pieces of legislation introduced in Victoria between August and December 2025 is briefly summarised, together with some of the stakeholder responses to the reforms.