Tuesday, 26 August 2025

Bills

Worker Screening Amendment (Strengthening the Working with Children Check) Bill 2025

Second reading

Debate resumed.

Annabelle CLEELAND (Euroa) (14:59): I rise today to speak on the Worker Screening Amendment (Strengthening the Working with Children Check) Bill 2025. As we have heard throughout the day, this is something that we on this side of the house will not oppose, and we will never stand in the way of protecting Victorian children.

We have not stood in the way at one moment in time over the last three years – over the last decade, in fact – because when it comes to children’s safety there is absolutely no room for delay, there is no excuse for inaction and there is no justification of failure, because every parent in Victoria deserves to have trust that their child is safe at school, at child care and at sport, and every MP in this place can agree that is currently not the standard that we are living with here in Victoria. Every child in Victoria deserves the right to grow up free from harm, and this is why we are here.

My greatest concern, and something that I think many of us are losing sleep over on this side of the house, is that time and time again the Labor government has failed in its most basic duty in keeping our children safe. While this is a step in the right direction, I think the member for Malvern, who has been such a fierce advocate for Victorian children, said it so beautifully: we need to act quickly. He actually issued a press release, and I want to read a quote from it. I am quoting a few people today to show the differences on our side of the house. This was published on 14 September 2022, three years ago, and it was in response to the Ombudsman’s report that warned in 2022 that action needed to be taken immediately:

Shadow Attorney-General, Michael O’Brien, said after eight years of the Andrews Labor Government –

we can add three under Allan now –

Victoria has the weakest Working With Children safeguards in the nation.

We are concerned on this side of the house that this does not go far enough to protect Victoria’s children. And I quote him saying:

The Ombudsman has exposed that Labor’s poor legislation has created loopholes that only benefits pedophiles and those who would exploit children.

Tragically, this is not a hypothetical situation. Labor’s loopholes have led to children being abused by people with Working With Children clearances who should never have been allowed near children.

Three years ago that was published, and not for one moment has the Labor government listened to our side of the house to say there are red flags and there are concerns our children are at risk.

I want to mention the member for Eureka, who earlier this morning opened her speech saying that we are best when we work together. If this was not such a serious topic it would be comical, because I actually know about a month ago that very person, along with 53 of her colleagues, opposed our legislation brought forward by the member for Kew to protect Victorian children. And golly gosh, wouldn’t the children’s stories be so much different had this government acted three years ago? So many lives have been ruined and so many children’s lives have been forever changed because Labor will always put their own jobs and politics ahead of Victorian children.

This is something that we have spent hours and hours on, and my colleagues have not slept to ensure that we have put forward legislation – it is on the table; we have written it for you. Here what we have seen today is a step, but it is PR. It is managing the headlines rather than protecting the children, and that is what we are concerned with. The consequences of this inaction are the horrific allegations that we have heard from childcare centres; the consequence of ignoring warnings changes lives forever. Names like Ronald Marks and Joshua Brown haunt us on this side of the house.

In July 2025 we put forward and introduced the Worker Screening Amendment (Safety of Children) Bill 2025 – 54 members of Labor opposed it. We will never forgive that. Today we will not oppose this because we understand action has to be taken, but we want it noted the Liberals and Nationals called for actions three years ago. You have failed so many Victorian children. We will not forgive you.

Mathew HILAKARI (Point Cook) (15:04): I follow on from that contribution and I do actually plead with every member of this place, no matter which side of the chamber: there are alleged perpetrators and alleged offences. I really – not encourage – want you to understand. If justice cannot be delivered to the community that I represent because of statements made in this house – it is an unfathomable position to put the community in that I represent and that so many people in this place represent if members cannot use more cautious language that does not invite the justice system to deny justice. The member who named people who are alleged perpetrators leaves the chamber, and she put that prosecution that risk. That is disgraceful. Members opposite, I ask you to be cautious in your language, because it is important for the community that I represent.

Brad Rowswell: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, the member is reflecting upon you as the Chair by using the word ‘you’, and the comments that the member is currently making are an insinuation against the member for Euroa which is, firstly, untrue and secondly, should be made only by substantive motion.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Meng Heang Tak): I rule that there is no point of order, but I ask the member to continue.

Mathew HILAKARI: I will continue exactly where I left off, which is: we should be cautious with our language in this place, because it can have a real effect on the people whose lives have been changed negatively forever.

Roma Britnell interjected.

Mathew HILAKARI: I think the communities that have been affected would not appreciate that those opposite want to talk over those people on their feet, but I will continue. The working with children check changes are important. They are a step, a step that follows on from a recent report which had 22 recommendations. Those allegations have affected the community that I represent as much as any other community in the state, and even more so. I would like to acknowledge that I have been speaking with parents, educators, doctors and all parts of the community since these allegations came out, and they have deeply affected the community that I represent. For those opposite to make light of it, to mock it, is disgraceful. I just find it unbelievable that people would make politics out of this.

What I did want to talk about was the working with children check changes that have been made – that is what I did want to talk about and recommend and support – in this place. They allow for the immediate suspension of a person’s working with children check and take away the 28 days pending natural justice process that previously existed – and it is important to do so. These changes come 11 days after the Commonwealth’s attorneys-general met and decided and agreed, and importantly so, that those in any jurisdiction would automatically be banned in Victoria if they are banned from working in another state. Introduced is the power to cancel a working with children check where it is grounded in and based on false or misleading information, and it provides the opportunity for prosecutions well after the existing date.

I say to those people in the community that I represent: I too feel with you just how horrific this has been. I know that for each person telling me their story, it is so difficult. It is so difficult because they do not speak to me in the first instance like they would about roads or traffic or other issues; they wait until they build up trust in the conversation. They wait until you are midway through the conversation or until you are at the end of the conversation, and it is the last thing that people mention to you. We will keep working on this because there is much more to do in this space, as outlined in the report, and much more beyond that. I commend this bill to the house.

Brad ROWSWELL (Sandringham) (15:09): I also rise to speak on the Worker Screening Amendment (Strengthening the Working with Children Check) Bill 2025. In doing so I support the comments made by my colleagues. I support the comments made by the Shadow Attorney-General and the Shadow Minister for Education, and I do so because what the Shadow Attorney-General and the Shadow Minister for Education did just a couple of weeks ago is what the government should have done three years ago.

We on this side have been quite clear. We support the government’s bill. We do not think it goes far enough, but we support the government’s bill. But that does not negate my obligation to tell every Victorian family right here, right now that at the hands of the Allan government Victorian children and Victorian families have been failed. Victorian children and Victorian families have been failed by the Allan Labor government, which was warned three years ago by Victoria’s Ombudsman that the working with children check system needed a major overhaul. The government received that information – the government received the Ombudsman’s report – and they did absolutely nothing with it, and in the intervening period Victoria’s children have been put at risk, so much so that families around the state taking their kids to child care of a morning cannot be guaranteed that their children are safe still today, because this government has been so slow to act. It is important to mention these things, because someone needs to be held accountable. We on this side of the house aspire to the great responsibility that being in government is. We desire that, we want that – not for ourselves, but to do such a better job than the current Labor government.

Even today, as we speak, two weeks since it was revealed that a male childcare worker was sacked for kissing toddlers and grooming families from one childcare centre in 2020 then banned from the industry in 2024, up until this morning he has held a valid working with children check. Still today, at this very moment, he holds a valid working with children check. That is a bloody disgrace – an absolute and utter disgrace – and the people that are responsible are the people who have been called to high office: members of this government, who were warned about these risks three years ago and did sweet nothing about it.

I want to briefly speak about the Australian Childhood Foundation and some representations that I had from them early last year. They came to me when I served as the Shadow Treasurer, asking me to help them, and I was more than happy to do so. They saw, through communication and engagement with some victim-survivors, that there were significant flaws in the working with children check process. Victim-survivors, through their own voices and through a report facilitated by the Australian Childhood Foundation, made simply one recommendation, and that was that the working with children check process should, as part of it, have compulsory training where those applying for a working with children check are able to understand what grooming looks like and understand what child abuse looks like, so then they are better educated and then they are better informed, so when those people who are applying for a working with children check then in fact work with children, they can understand what these things look like and are in a better position to report them. Is that in this bill? Is that very sensible amendment in this bill that we are considering today? No, it is not.

Jess Wilson: But it was recommended by the rapid review.

Brad ROWSWELL: It was recommended by the rapid review – thank you, member for Kew – and it should be included in this bill today, but it is not. It is a simple thing. As the member for Malvern has indicated, we reserve our right in the Legislative Council to bring a number of amendments forward which will strengthen this bill.

I will end where I began. We will not oppose this bill; in fact we support this bill, because it is a step in the right direction. But that does not mean that Victorian families should not know the truth of this matter. When the Allan Labor government had an opportunity to act three years ago, they did not. That is on them, and that is absolutely and utterly shameful.

Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (15:14): I too rise to speak on the Worker Screening Amendment (Strengthening the Working with Children Check) Bill 2025. This is the most important bill that we will be debating here in this place this week. For both me and my community in Melbourne’s west, especially in Wyndham, what happened that led to this bill entering this place has caused immense harm, immense grief and immense outrage. I do not think there is any of us, as community members, as parents – and I would ask those opposite to remember that on this side of the house we are also parents. Some of the commentary has been appalling coming from that side of the house. We are community members, we are parents, we are friends and we are family, and all of us are shocked. We are disgusted at the reports of what we have heard has happened in these childcare centres. I have had a centre in my electorate named as one of those that has been identified as one of the sites that abhorrent predator worked at. I have spoken with parents, some of whom are just putting their kids in child care for the very first time – and that is a really big deal for any family, but at this time – and they really are worried that something like that might happen to their child. That is something that all parents, or grandparents, think about.

But what I will say is that this is not the time for politics; it is time for us to take swift and decisive action on this. When news of these atrocities first broke out our government commissioned a rapid review of our childcare settings almost immediately. Now that review has come back to us, and we have committed to implementing all 22 recommendations in full. It is why, in addition to these changes in this bill that we are making today, we will be supporting the sector with a $42 million funding boost in order to give effect to these recommendations.

Roma Britnell interjected.

Sarah CONNOLLY: Acting Speaker, could you counsel the member for South-West Coast if she cannot control herself in the chamber?

The ACTING SPEAKER (Meng Heang Tak): Order! I need to hear the member on their feet for their contribution.

Sarah CONNOLLY: Thank you, Acting Speaker. In fact we are going further than these recommendations, and I understand that a subsequent bill will be introduced later this year which will address things like mandatory online child safety training for applicants, which we know we need, using new screening tools to clear applicants and new requirements to clear and track employees across the sector. I really look forward to that work being completed. That is really important work.

Of course this work cannot be done by us alone. All governments have a role to play in strengthening this sector, and the federal government in Canberra I trust are also taking these issues incredibly seriously and share our commitment to strengthening national childcare regulations. But the work we are doing today with this bill is the critical first step to ensuring that our childcare centres are safe, and it will make sure that a person who is banned from working with children in another state or territory will also be automatically banned here in Victoria, which was a key commitment from all governments made less than two weeks ago, mutually recognising interstate bans. It will also allow for the immediate suspension of a person’s working with children clearance upon notification of a charge or relevant finding, be it disciplinary or regulatory, in contrast to the 28-day grace period that currently exists. It will empower regulators to cancel a clearance where it was granted based on false or misleading information, and it will increase time limits for commencing the prosecution of the offence of providing false or misleading information regarding these matters from 12 months to five years and six months. All of these changes are immediately impactful, and they will work to help stop these things from happening again and, most importantly, make sure that our kids are safe when we drop them off at child care. People who have been banned in other states from working with children and who are subject to an allegation or charge that may render them unsuitable to work with children should not in fact be working with children.

Whether it is in our childcare centres, in our schools or beyond, these changes will make sure that individuals like that are not permitted in those settings. That is exactly why I wholeheartedly commend this bill to the house.

Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (15:19): We will always put the safety of children first. I listen to this debate with both a heavy heart and a fierce determination to speak up for the most vulnerable members of our community, our children. The Victorian Liberals and Nationals will always put the safety of children first, not only those children in child care, loved by their families and expecting their educators to have their safety as a first priority, but also the children in the state’s care, vulnerable children who are our most desperate and deserving of care and protection, not just as a government but as a society. We will of course work constructively with the government to pass any legislation and any reform that requires protection laws in Victoria to get strengthened. We will not oppose this bill.

In 2022 the Ombudsman said the system protecting children was weak – the weakest in the country, in 2022. When she handed down her report highlighting this, we the Lib–Nationals responded with:

A Liberals and Nationals Government will urgently amend the Worker Screening Act to implement the Ombudsman’s recommendations and give Victoria’s children the protection they deserve.

They were our words three years ago. The Labor government on the other hand did not respond – complete silence. Three years on and only when immeasurable harm to children has occurred do we see this government finally acting – despicable acts that should have been avoided, such as predators intending to infect babies with sexually transmitted diseases. The Ombudsman in 2022 – and remember this is three years ago, before these disgusting acts took place – in her summary of the report said:

The biggest remaining gap is the need to amend the Worker Screening Act 2020 (Vic). Working with Children Check Victoria should be able to act on information that indicates someone poses an unjustifiable risk to the safety of children, regardless of whether criminal charges are brought.

…

Reforms to the legislation are needed to bring Victoria in line with other states and territories, and to promote the rights of children and families enshrined in Victoria’s Human Rights Charter.

Not only did the government not respond – it failed to respond – but when we the Liberal–Nationals acted out of pure desperation to introduce legislation a month ago, Labor blocked our bill. This would have strengthened child protection, with the Victorian Ombudsman’s recommendations embedded within that legislation. That was what was in our bill. Our bill allowed for the secretary of the department to remove a working with children check immediately if they had reasonable belief there was a chance children’s safety would be compromised. Labor’s bill today does not. Labor’s bill we debate today is weak and does not even address the Ombudsman’s recommendations to the government, made three years ago. It does not address them and does not embed them in the bill.

It is only the recent scandal of alleged child sexual assault in the childcare sector that has pushed Labor to act, to focus on the failures that Labor was warned of three years ago. We heard so much in the last few weeks about the rapid review and about how all the recommendations would be acted upon urgently. Well, they are not being acted upon. This bill fails to implement the recommendations from the government’s own rapid review. There is only one recommendation in the 22 recommendations – only one.

This legislation does not address the called-for links to police databases, nor does it address mandatory training called for. The Premier in her emotive press conference even highlighted the importance of mandatory training, but this bill does not address that either. The legislation will not even prevent people like we have heard so much about – in Horsham, for example, Ronald Marks, who the media reported was found with child pornography on his phone – being able to hold a working with children check. This legislation does not even address that.

Well, we will not delay the bill or oppose it, as anything which makes Victorian children even slightly safer is worthwhile. We should take the opportunity to remind the government that their delay in legislating all the recommendations is still putting children in danger. I will not stand by while children suffer. I will not. I will continue to fight for reform, and I will hold this government to account.

This bill is weak. This is not just a failure of policy; it is a failure of leadership, a failure of compassion, a failure to protect. We support the recommendations from the Victorian Ombudsman and always have done. We have long fought for them. This government have finally been forced to acknowledge the scale of this tragedy and the urgency it demands, but they are not doing enough still. We will be putting forward amendments in the upper house to strengthen this bill, but we will not stand in the way. We will always put the safety of children first.

Iwan WALTERS (Greenvale) (15:25): I also rise to speak on the Worker Screening Amendment (Strengthening the Working with Children Check) Bill 2025, and I do so with a sense of profound obligation. These are incredibly challenging matters that we are confronting through this legislation, which is of course just the first step in a comprehensive response to allegations – and I am conscious of the need to ensure that language maintains conformity with the need to avoid saying anything that is sub judice – which were so deeply horrifying and confronting I am sure to all of us and to all Victorians when they came to light some time ago. As the member for Preston in his contribution I think said, it is one of those instances where you remember where you were when you heard about them, and your thoughts immediately go to the families of those children who have been impacted by this alleged conduct and the profound and acute distress and concern of parents who also have that sense of uncertainty about what may or may not have happened to their children.

It is almost – it should be – unimaginable, and it I think provokes a really visceral reaction in all of us to imagine that such conduct can take place in settings that must be safe for children. It is a topic that I have been contemplating very actively over the last few weeks in particular because of various life events. But that relinquishing of your child into the care of others is a profound step, as the member for Preston also said. So the need to ensure that the regulatory frameworks that apply in the context of early childhood education and child care are of paramount importance, which is why I rise to speak in support of this legislative measure, this first step that will strengthen the powers of the secretary and the department to administer the working with children scheme in Victoria and seek to deal with some of those anomalous dimensions of our federation whereby there are loopholes, or there have been loopholes, that have enabled people who should not hold a working with children check in Victoria to do so as a consequence of a lack of information sharing across borders.

But before getting to the content of the bill, I think it is important to deal with the context of the bill. In everything that I do in this debate, I am constantly mindful of those directly affected families in communities that are represented by many people, very sadly, across this chamber, the families of children who were in child care, who should have been able to expect that their children were safe. I also am mindful of the impact that this has had on the medical workforce, those working in paediatric forensic medicine, who have a really difficult job in all circumstances but, when the scale of this alleged offending has been so great, have needed to work with so many children and their families. It is deeply confronting for them, as well as for the childcare workforce, which is impacted. Those who are there every day seeking to do their best, seeking to provide care in a very genuine sense, have a pall cast over the work that they do. They are I think deeply hurt and traumatised by the alleged conduct of the alleged offender in this instance. So I am mindful of the impact that this has had on so many people, and it is why the provisions of the bill are important. They are part of a much broader suite of work; this is just the first step.

But I want to thank the Minister for Children for working at that national cabinet and ministerial council level to ensure that we do have national mutual recognition of the Victorian working with children check and to ensure that we have exclusions. As the federal Attorney-General said: banned in one, banned in all. That must be the cornerstone of a functional, comprehensive working with children system across the country.

I do not want to take too much time in my contribution, because I know that there is a lot of interest across the chamber in speaking on this bill, because its provisions are so important – it deals with such profoundly important matters. But I do hope that the bill will enable the secretary to have those expanded powers, and wherever and whenever the secretary is made aware of charges or convictions or findings of guilt, they can cancel those working with children checks. The issues that have been brought to light by this case just emphasise that it is so important that we get this right. So I commend this bill to the house. I know it is the first step, and I look forward to more work being done.

Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (15:31): The Worker Screening Amendment (Strengthening the Working with Children Check) Bill 2025 that we have before us should be so much more than it is, and although we are supporting it on this side of the house, it is exceptionally disappointing. The safety of our children should always be our priority, and there are so many families and communities that have been deeply, deeply impacted by horrific incidents recently. I look at the Premier’s comments with her press release around this issue:

Child safety comes first – that’s why I’m implementing a child safety overhaul.

Three years too late.

Parliament will sit for as long as it takes to get this Bill passed – no-one’s leaving until it’s done.

Again, three years too late. This could have been avoided if the government actually did care and did put children’s safety first rather than now having to rush headfirst into legislation – and they have not got it all right. This bill takes only minor steps to improve the operation of the working with children check system. It is weak in that it does not even acquit all of the Ombudsman’s recommendations that were made to the government in September 2022. That in itself is a failure. Not only have they neglected it for three years, but now, when they have had the opportunity, they have not done that. Not only that, we heard in question time continually about the rapid review – the review of the review. This bill also fails to implement the recommendation from their own rapid review into child safety, which was released last week. This is just not good enough.

In September three years ago, 2022, the Ombudsman made very clear recommendations about the worker screening check process, and there were five changes to elements. Our Shadow Attorney-General at that time made particular comments:

A Liberals and Nationals Government will urgently amend the Worker Screening Act to implement the Ombudsman's recommendations and give Victoria’s children the protection they deserve.

We said that three years ago because we knew it was important, but this government did not, and they let the most horrific circumstances, which we all do not even want to think about, happen under their watch because they were neglectful, and that is something that they should all hang their heads in shame for.

The bill we have now does not, as I said, address all of the Ombudsman’s recommendations. Two weeks ago the Liberals and Nationals put forward a private members bill, the Worker Screening Amendment (Safety of Children) Bill 2025. All the members on the other side of the house, on the government benches, voted against it. Our bill addressed everything that the Ombudsman said needed to be done, unlike this bill that we have now. I cannot tell you how disappointing it is that you have had three years and you have known for two weeks you had our blueprint of what you could do to get moving here, but again you have failed.

We do have four basic propositions here, as determined by the Standing Council of Attorneys-General last week. If you are banned in one, you are banned in all – well, that is fine. The category C offences now can have an immediate response, rather than having to go through what is seen as procedural fairness for 28 days. The working with children check is suspended, revoked and cancelled if there is false or misleading information.

That would include not declaring certain things. We have an extension of time. What this bill should be about – it should be about introducing all of the recommendations from the rapid review. It should be about the Ombudsman’s recommendation and putting in what we did in our private members bill two weeks ago. What is most disappointing – because the Premier rabbited on about the rapid review, on and on, but it mentions:

Allow unsubstantiated information or intelligence … from police, child protection, or other relevant bodies) to be obtained, shared, and considered in order to assess, refuse, temporarily suspend or revoke a Working with Children Check.

Not urgent enough, not important enough; we will have to wait till October. Same with the mandatory training that was recommended – not important enough. The government continue to let children down, and they should be ashamed. We will support this bill even though the amendments are minor, and we will have further amendments that we will put forward in the Legislative Council.

Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (15:36): Certainly, every parent deserves to trust that when they drop their child off at child care, they are safe and protected. The recent allegations of shocking abuse in childcare centres have definitely broken that, and that is why our Victorian government has announced a child safety overhaul, certainly pertaining to the bill today, and I will speak to the overarching elements of that. We are also taking immediate action to strengthen the working with children check and child safety in early childhood education and care settings with a $42 million boost to the sector by accepting and implementing all 22 recommendations of the independent rapid child safety review; establishing a new nation-leading regulator that will more than double the frequency of compliance checks; beefing up the social services regulator by bringing the WWCC, the reportable conduct scheme and the child safety standards under one roof by the end of the year, giving it new powers, removing silos and weeding out predators; introducing mandatory child safety training and expanding professional support programs, including through changes to the national law to build a greater culture of speaking up; and calling on the federal government to prioritise quality and safety in the national childcare system.

I did say from the outset that I would also obviously speak to the overarching elements of this bill. I would proffer that they are important changes and are not to be taken lightly. First of all, the bill will ensure that a person who is banned from working with children in another jurisdiction will be automatically banned in Victoria. Mutual recognition of interstate bans – we can see is obviously a commonsense approach regarding the very serious matters that are being discussed in the chamber today, and this gives effect to a joint commitment made by the Commonwealth and state and territory governments at the Standing Council of Attorneys-General on 15 August 2025. Secondly, another amendment will allow for immediate suspension of a person’s WWC clearance upon being notified of any charge or relevant regulatory or disciplinary finding, pending determination of an assessment. Currently – and this is a really important nuance that I think we should not just skim over – people can work for 28 days pending the natural justice process. That is just to understand that important nuance and not to make light of it. Thirdly, it will introduce a power to cancel a WWC clearance where it was granted based on false or misleading information or otherwise pursuant to an unlawful application. And fourthly, there are increased time limits for commencing a prosecution of the offence of providing false or misleading information in relation to a worker screening application or reassessment from 12 months to five years and six months. I hope that it would be well understood by all those in the chamber the imperative for those changes and also for acting as a deterrent more broadly of some of the grievous behaviour that has been alluded to.

The mutual recognition of interstate bans, which I was alluding to just before – I just want to dive into that a little bit more. On 15 August 2025 the Standing Council of Attorneys-General:

agreed to urgently work towards implementation, by the end of 2025, of mutual recognition –

of working with children exclusions –

… so that a person denied a WWCC, or whose WWCC has been revoked, in one jurisdiction cannot be granted or hold a WWCC in another jurisdiction

I think that this is a really important step forward. The bill explicitly prohibits a person who has received a working with children exclusion in another state or territory from applying for a working with children check in Victoria. I certainly echo the sentiments of everyone in this chamber – at least on this side of the chamber, who are very supportive of this, and I understand those opposite are not going to oppose the bill – that working in a collaborative way across the country is an incredibly important way of proceeding when we are talking about many matters but particularly with the safety of children.

I will just finally say one more point, because I know that there are many who do want to speak to these important matters. When it comes to expanding the powers of the Department of Justice and Community Safety to suspend a person’s working with children check – noting that this is an important and should be a very effective mechanism when it comes to preventing predatory behaviour but also shutting down predatory behaviour, for want of a better word – the secretary will be empowered to immediately prevent a person from working with children, pending reassessment of the working with children check, if they have been charged with, convicted of or found guilty of any offence that may represent a risk to children or had any relevant disciplinary or regulatory findings made against them.

The importance of this – and I am going to close on this point – is that it will ensure that people who have a criminal record or who have been subject to a relevant regulatory or disciplinary finding are not able to work with children until after their eligibility has been rigorously assessed. On that note, I do not think that there is any value in making light of these changes. They are important changes, and we back them wholeheartedly.

Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (15:42:352:): When it comes to the safety of children, Victorians do not want half measures, they want certainty. Sadly, this Worker Screening Amendment (Strengthening the Working with Children Check) Bill 2025 delivers neither. It is baby steps, and it teeters around the edges. The safety of Victorian children, as I said earlier, is one of the most important responsibilities of any government and in fact of any MP in this place. Parents, carers and communities deserve confidence that the systems that are in place are robust, are thorough and are actually effective when they need to be, and sadly, this system and this bill fail that test.

Three years ago, as we have heard every other member on this side of the house state, the Victorian Ombudsman tabled a report with very, very clear recommendations. And three weeks ago, the Member for Kew also presented a bill that had all of those recommendations included in that bill. We presented a blueprint to strengthen the working with children system. The recommendations that the Ombudsman had presented highlighted gaps that could put children at risk, and here we are three years later with a bill that does not implement any of the reforms that the Ombudsman identified nor any of the reforms from the so-called rapid review. And here is the ultimate truth: this bill does nothing to give parents peace of mind. Like I said, it tinkers around the edges. It changes the paperwork, but it is not fixing the system. We could do this right the first time. What parents want is pretty simple, in my opinion. It is to know that when they drop their children at day care, kinder, sport, dance, school, Scouts or after-school care, the people that are responsible have been checked under the most rigorous system possible. This bill does not deliver that assurance.

The Ombudsman’s recommendations were clear. It called for a more transparent appeals process, greater information sharing between agencies, stronger oversight of interim decisions and clearer communication with applicants and parents alike.

These are not radical, not expensive, recommendations or reforms, they are just common sense. Yet for three years this government has chosen to ignore them, and that is a fundamental failure of every single child in this state. In regional communities like mine parents are already faced with the challenge of fewer childcare options, fewer sports coaches, fewer teachers, fewer early childcare educators and fewer volunteers, so when the system fails to screen people properly it does not just create risk, it erodes trust that is already eroding. Once that trust is gone kids in the regions completely miss out – they miss out everywhere. We should be debating legislation similar to the bill, if not the bill, that the member for Kew put up three weeks ago – legislation that puts children first, not legislation that puts bureaucracy first. Parents do not want red tape; they want reassurance. I was so spoilt with my children’s early education in kinder. Murray Valley Aboriginal Co-operative is where they were educated from the time they were 12 months old, and I was so lucky, because I knew undoubtedly that when I dropped my kids off MVAC I did not have to worry. I was not concerned at all, and every parent deserves that reassurance when it comes to their kids. Parents do not want red tape, like I said. They do not want excuses. Parents want action, and most of all we want our kids to be safe.

This Parliament has an opportunity to ensure the working with children system is rigorous, transparent and, most importantly, trusted, and this bill falls well short of that. When it comes to child safety second best is simply not good enough. I urge the government to listen to the Ombudsman, listen to their own rapid review, listen to the bill presented three weeks ago and listen to parents to deliver real reform that Victorians deserve because, like I have said, Victorians and Victorian children deserve absolute certainty when it comes to their safety – not half-measures, not excuses and not another missed opportunity, and this bill is all three of those.

Josh BULL (Sunbury) (15:47): This afternoon the Parliament is of course dealing with matters that are deeply important. Before I take the opportunity to make some fairly brief remarks on the key changes that are in the bill, I do wish, as others have done, to acknowledge the pain, anguish and trauma about not just the discussion of the matters that are before the Parliament this afternoon but what of course we have seen in the media, the allegations that have been put and the harm that occurs to our most vulnerable – and that is our children, our kids – in this state. I extend that to those who may be listening or who may read this later in Hansard and, as other members have done, I take the opportunity to also thank those thousands of childcare workers who each and every day go to work to educate our kids and do so with great care and great passion and do the things that we as parents, as Victorians and as members of local communities wish for each and every day.

In the series of weeks since the allegations were put the government has of course taken a number of steps that go to the matters that are before us with the bill this afternoon. What we are doing today with this piece of legislation, the Worker Screening Amendment (Strengthening the Working with Children Check) Bill 2025, is of course making key changes that go to strengthening the working with children check scheme and increasing protections for children by preventing people who may pose a risk to children from engaging in child-related work.

As others have mentioned, the bill will make the following urgent amendments to the Worker Screening Act 2020: ensuring that a person who is banned from working with children in another jurisdiction will be automatically banned in Victoria – mutual recognition, that is – to give effect to the joint commitment made by the Commonwealth and state and territory governments. It goes on further, allowing for the immediate suspension of a person’s working with children clearance upon being notified of any charge or relevant regulatory or disciplinary finding, pending the determination of an assessment. It will introduce the power to cancel a working with children clearance where it was granted based on false or misleading information, and it will increase the time limits for commencing prosecution of the offence of providing false or misleading information in relation to a worker screening application on reassessment from 12 months to five years and six months.

I intend to keep my comments, as I mentioned, relatively short, but when it goes to these matters, we indeed wish to send strength to those that have been harmed by the practices that have occurred and of course extend our great sympathies to those that are dealing with these matters on this very day. As I think a number of members have mentioned – and I heard the fantastic member for Greenvale make some comments about what it means to drop your child off at child care and have that sense of trust in those people who I mentioned earlier, the vast majority of whom do amazing work within local communities to educate our young people – the abhorrent treatment and disgraceful and disgusting and shameful acts that these allegations have brought to light shake the very foundations of what it means to be a parent, a member of a community and a member of our society. We intend to make these actions today, and we will of course continue, through the Premier, the Attorney-General and the Minister for Children, to work with the Commonwealth, which was brought with the press conference on Friday, and that work will continue to occur. With those comments I would like to commend this bill to the house.

John PESUTTO (Hawthorn) (15:53): I rise to speak on the Worker Screening Amendment (Strengthening the Working with Children Check) Bill 2025, and I do so with mixed emotions, because whilst we support the bill, it is with a lament that the government has wasted not just three years. Let us be frank about this: Alexander Jones, who was at the centre of the Ombudsman’s inquiry in 2022, was discovered to have committed a sexual assault as early as 2018. That was some four years before the Ombudsman’s investigation. So for four years the Allan Labor government – admittedly with the former Premier in charge but with the current Premier at the cabinet table – knew about these matters, knew about the system risks that existed, knew about the imperative for reform.

The Ombudsman commenced her investigation in June of 2022. Let us put it in context. In three months the Ombudsman concluded her investigation and reported, with all of those recommendations. It took the Ombudsman just 12 weeks to identify the urgent reform items that needed to be made. The Ombudsman, amongst her many recommendations, made suggestions to the government and said that the changes were, in her words, ‘imperative’ against a worker screening system that was the most limited in the country. And what the Ombudsman called for was very reasonable. It was allowing the working with children monitor to take into account a broad range of matters and not have to wait for substantiated criminal charges or disciplinary matters to approve an application, revoke an application or reassess an application – very sensible reforms.

And here we are, more than three years later, seeing a bill which we support but which goes nowhere near far enough to address the concerns.

So the first thing I would say, not just to our young kids around our state, not just to the parents and not just to the grandparents but to all of us who care for the welfare and health of our young children, the most vulnerable in our community, is that this government failed to respond to the Ombudsman’s report. This government failed to respond to our bill, which we introduced only a few weeks ago, the Worker Screening Amendment (Safety of Children) Bill 2025, which sits in the upper house. This government could support it this week and acquit the obligations of the Ombudsman. They failed that.

But worse than all of that – if that is not enough – this government has failed its own rapid review. Jay Weatherill and Pam White have made recommendations. They have said it is urgent that we fix these things. They made 22 recommendations, and in particular the one that is most pertinent to this bill, which is in chapter 4 – recommendation 6 – the government could and should embrace right now if they were being faithful to the recommendations of Mr Weatherill and Ms White. They have come back to government like the Ombudsman did. Let us look at how long they took. They were appointed on 2 July; they reported by 15 August. It looks like everybody on the face of the planet gets that this is urgent. It does not need a lot of time. The Ombudsman needed 12 weeks. Jay Weatherill and Pam White needed only six weeks. Everybody can see the need for urgent reforms – everybody except this government. For some reason, which defies comprehension, defies a reasonable excuse, defies any kind of understanding, this government is not prepared. Whether it is through indifference – which I would find hard to accept, because despite our differences I know the other side would care about the welfare of our kids – or whether it is incompetence, what is it that leads this government to stonewall on its own review?

So we will support this bill, but what will it take, in the face of the Ombudsman’s report and in the face of our bill, which was a constructive effort to deliver urgent reforms and which we pleaded with the government to embrace so we could show the Victorian people this Parliament, under this government, gets it. Even the rapid review this government is failing. It is a bill we will support from a government that deserves the criticism it is attracting.

Tim READ (Brunswick) (15:58): I will speak briefly today on the Worker Screening Amendment (Strengthening the Working with Children Check) Bill 2025, which this government is hastening through Parliament this week in light of the awful revelations that have rocked Victoria over the past several weeks. The Greens welcome these necessary reforms and will be supporting the bill. These reforms are the first step of many needed to improve the early childhood education and care system. However, it is disappointing that the Greens only received the bill late last night, leaving insufficient time for scrutiny. When it comes to the safety of children, the Greens would have preferred a more considered approach.

The Greens welcome the bill and its changes to strengthen safeguards and close the gaps in working with children checks, but it should not have taken a full-blown crisis for this Labor government to act only once it became unavoidable. In 2015 the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse report described Australia’s working with children check systems, including in Victoria, as in need of urgent strengthening. So that was 10 years ago. The Victorian Ombudsman also recommended urgent changes to the working with children check more than three years ago. It has also been revealed that in the same year, 2022, this Labor government ignored repeated warnings from the commissioner for children and young people that ongoing underfunding would mean children would be abused. So why has it taken Labor this long? Instead of acting earlier, Labor has unfortunately waited until there was a crisis and then scrambled to push through changes without proper time for review and scrutiny. Therefore, the result is a bill full of gaps and weaknesses – more of a patch than a real solution. If we are serious about protecting children, this cannot be the end of the work, and the Greens are ready to work with the government to build a childcare system that puts kids first.

The rapid child safety review clearly showed that the childcare sector has been completely reshaped by for-profit corporations – something the government admitted last week. The legislation before us does nothing to mitigate this contradiction. The government can claim as much as they like that child safety will come first under these reforms, but we have seen that every time the system is run by corporations profits are the priority. Labor have broken families’ trust by ignoring red flags, dragging their feet on urgent reforms and keeping the full scale of the problem secret. What matters now is urgency, transparency and funding to make sure that these reforms deliver real change and do not just gather dust. So we welcome the bill before us today. With an issue as crucial as child safety, even half-measures are better than nothing, but I urge the government to understand that until our childcare system is driven by the wellbeing of children rather than the wellbeing of corporate stakeholders, it is hard to believe that children’s safety will ever be the priority. The Greens will keep fighting for the rights of children in this broken system.

Motion agreed to.

Read second time; by leave, proceeded to third reading.

Third reading

Motion agreed to.

Read third time.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Juliana Addison): The bill will now be sent to the Legislative Council and their agreement requested.