Wednesday, 30 July 2025

Committees

Select committee

Establishment

Anasina GRAY-BARBERIO (Northern Metropolitan) (14:17): I seek leave to move motion 988 standing in my name in an amended form.

Leave granted.

Anasina GRAY-BARBERIO: I move:

That:

(1) a select committee of six members be appointed to inquire into, consider and report on the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector in Victoria, including but not limited to:

(a) the adequacy of current quality and safety standards across all ECEC service types;

(b) the quality and oversight of educator training, professional development and qualifications, including a review of the effectiveness of working with children checks and of registered training organisations issuing early childhood certifications;

(c) the impacts of Victoria’s predominantly privatised ECEC system, including a comparison with public, not-for-profit and cooperative models in terms of accessibility, affordability, safety and outcomes;

(d) the impact of workforce conditions, such as pay, job security, workload and recognition on educator wellbeing, retention and service quality;

(e) the adequacy of staff-to-child ratio regulations, including ratios being averaged across entire services rather than applied per room;

(f) whether there is sufficient oversight of the Department of Education and the role it plays in monitoring and maintaining child safety;

(g) any other matter in relation to the adequacy, implementation, compliance and/or enforcement of child safety standards and regulations in the ECEC sector;

(2) the committee provide an interim report by a date determined by the committee, and a final report by 30 July 2026;

(3) the committee consist of two members from the government nominated by the Leader of the Government in the Council, two members from the opposition nominated by the Leader of the Opposition in the Council, and two members from among the remaining members in the Council, to be nominated jointly by those remaining members;

(4) substitute members may be appointed and the provisions outlined in standing order 23.08 will apply;

(5) the members will be appointed by lodgement of the names with the President within five calendar days of the Council agreeing to this resolution;

(6) the chair of the committee will be a non-government member and the deputy chair will be a government member;

(7) the first meeting of the committee will be held within one week of members’ names being lodged with the President;

(8) the committee will hold public hearings; and

(9) the committee may obtain technical and specialist assistance to aid its inquiry.

I just want to highlight to the chamber, in the spirit of transparency, the changes that my amendment is putting forward: point (2) is in relation to a change of date for the interim report, and point (6) is for the chair of the committee to be non-government and the deputy chair to be a government member.

I rise today to speak on the Greens motion 988 for a select committee into the early childhood education and care sector in Victoria, because Victorian parents and families right now deserve transparency and accountability about how this Labor government is going about ensuring the safety of all children in the early childhood sector. On Wednesday 18 June, some six weeks ago, the Greens requested that the government provide a number of documents relating to the safety of children in the early childhood and education care sector, pertaining to information on warnings, rule breaches and penalties issued to childcare providers since 2022, as well as how decisions around risk and compliance are being made by the regulator of the early childhood sector, which also sits in the Department of Education. This request for public information in our motion was respectfully written to prioritise the privacy and confidentiality of children and their families.

Shamefully, not only did this Labor government miss the deadline to provide this documentation, but their leader, the Premier of this state, refused to apologise for missing the childcare safety documents release deadline – documents that will help us all as legislators and the Victorian public understand how allegations of one of the worst cases of child sexual abuse by an early childhood worker was enabled not only to be uncovered but to proliferate. In the middle of a childcare sector emergency this government is clearly covering its tracks, and there is no place for an unapologetic lack of transparency and accountability. Victorian families, as well as Victorian educators, are shouting very clearly to this government that now is the time to come clean.

Our request for documents six weeks ago came following the work of Four Corners and my Greens colleague Abigail Boyd in New South Wales, where the New South Wales state government worked with the Greens to provide similar documents – documents that revealed systemic issues of abuse and neglect in the early childhood sector. The New South Wales Parliament was not afraid of what was going to be revealed in the documents. What they were more concerned about was transparency and accountability in the early childhood sector. We have seen some really heart-wrenching images and footage of children from this Four Corners documentary being the innocent recipients of a system that fails to prioritise their care. Sadly, this is precisely what we have seen unfold right here in Victoria over the past few weeks, only far worse than anyone, perhaps with the exception of the regulator and this Labor government, could have imagined.

Thousands of parents and families have been left devastated, heartbroken and traumatised. Can you imagine: they were forced to take their children, some just months old, babies and toddlers, to GPs and emergency departments for sexually transmitted disease checks – babies. I just cannot even imagine what kind of hell this would have been for them. This is why the Greens are fighting so bloody hard to make sure that, along with action, there is transparency. The scale and nature of this crisis is truly unfathomable – a crisis that has occurred under the watchful yet very complacent eye of this government, a failure of responsibility and care. A childcare worker holding a valid working with children check who is alleged to have sexually assaulted innocent children in early childcare settings went untracked between early childcare centres right throughout Melbourne, especially in the west, where there are multicultural communities who do not understand how to navigate the system. It begs the question that so many educators have echoed to me, that more needs to be done and to also focus on the working conditions of the workforce so it does not become a sector full of casualised workers with no job security. Many of these centres where this alleged paedophile worked were giant corporate for-profit operators found guilty of malpractice and harm in New South Wales. One of these centres, G8, as reported by the Age yesterday, was found to be on the Department of Education’s watchlist, though the reasons remain undisclosed and veiled in secrecy by this government.

Today the Greens are calling for the establishment of a select committee, a powerful parliamentary inquiry to investigate the regulation and key aspects of Victoria’s early childhood sector and the adequacy of quality and safety standards and sufficient oversight by the Department of Education. While the Labor government operates behind closed doors, the sector continues to suffer from poor oversight, regulatory failures, unsafe staff-to-child ratios and inadequate workforce conditions. The government’s approach is about marking its own homework. Unsurprisingly, it has failed to scrutinise its role in this growing crisis, and it gets worse by the day. This is what has compelled me and the Greens to put forward this select committee motion. It is needed to fill the gaping holes in Labor’s rapid review which was released in response to this crisis.

The review fails to examine the systemic issues, in particular a key aspect: the regulatory body, the Commission for Children and Young People and how the Department of Education interacts with all these bodies. It is very clear to me that there is a need for an early childhood independent safety watchdog which has the powers to hold the department and this government to account. Thousands of families have already been harmed due to systemic failures of this government. Right now, on the backdrop of this crisis, we need more than piecemeal, bandaid solutions.

Just last night the Age reported that a whistleblower raised serious concerns with both the Department of Education and the regulator regarding the safety of children. Yet rather than taking action or offering support, the authorities once again failed to do their job. The complaints were not only ignored, they were dismissed outright. And the whistleblower, who was a student working at an early childcare centre, was blamed for not acting – blamed. Talk about gaslighting. This is a troubling reflection of a lack of responsibility and ownership by this government.

Yesterday during question time the Minister for Children spoke about how the quality assessment and regulation division, the regulator, was exceeding its targets – that its centres were meeting 96 per cent of its targets. Do you know what I want to know? I want to know how many of these centres are on the watchlist. How many of these centres are not meeting targets? That is what the Victorian public deserves. They deserve the other side of the coin.

We believe a broader inquiry is urgently needed to hold this government accountable for how decisions impacting children’s safety are being made and acted upon. This inquiry will be transparent, giving the Victorian public the opportunity to participate, understand what went wrong and help ensure that it never happens again. It will also look at how to include voices from a wide range of perspectives to reflect the full picture of this crisis and solutions going forward.

This inquiry would examine the consequences of Victoria’s increasingly privatised childcare system and look at all models of care. We know that the majority of early childhood centres that this early childcare worker worked at were part of major corporations that have a business model which obviously conflicts with the care of children, where for them the motive is profit, which is clearly incongruent with the quality of care that is needed to protect our children. We know quality of care is inconsistent in the sector. Many centres do their very best every day to put the care and wellbeing of children first, and I acknowledge the many hardworking early childhood educators who have been equally distressed by the failures of the system to protect children.

For this workforce, in which so many show up every day with children’s wellbeing at the heart of their work – for those doing the right thing – this period of heightened scrutiny may be deeply distressing. I want to say to them that the Greens hear the concerns that you have been raising for a long time in the sector, and we will continue to work bipartisanly to support the incredible work that you do and make the sector better for you and our children alike. The Greens are committed to doing what it takes to rebuild trust and transparency. We understand that it is what Victorian parents, educators and the public want and deserve. This inquiry will put the power back in the hands of the public, where anyone – parents, educators, experts – can participate and be part of the solution. As legislators it is our ultimate responsibility in this crisis to reassure parents that their children’s safety comes first, before this government’s ambition of political damage control. I commend this motion to the house.

Sheena WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (14:29): Thank you very much for the call and the opportunity to speak this afternoon on the motion put forward by Ms Gray-Barberio calling for a select committee. In rising to speak and make a contribution, can I note the extensive work that this government is already doing to help the early childhood education and care sector in Victoria to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children across Victoria. It is not something that is easy to think about, but the recent news of the disgusting and heinous crimes committed by individuals has really caused undue distress for parents and families right across the state. Families really must be able to trust that their children are safe at all times, whether they are at an early childhood education centre, at school, performing in extracurriculars or simply under the supervision of a caretaker. Children should always be safe to learn and develop, in any environment. I am pleased to say that this government will do all it can to ensure that the events that took place can never be allowed to happen again. Families should be able to send their kids to these centres with peace of mind.

Children are no doubt amongst the most vulnerable in our society, and those tasked with their care must be fit to do so. This government is taking urgent action to ensure that every place where a child is looked after will be held to the highest standards possible. As I saw in the referral motion before us, the inquiry will not only be focused on the early childhood education and care sector but also tasked with examining the effectiveness and impact of the working with children check, registered training organisations and the Department of Education, all key stakeholders in the development of young children across Victoria.

What I think is worth saying to the chamber today is that this government will be working closely with our re-elected federal counterparts to ensure that the early childhood education sector in Victoria will be the strongest and safest it can possibly be. I know that we have the good fortune in Victoria of the newly sworn-in Minister for Early Childhood Education being a Victorian – that is Senator Jess Walsh, who I understand has been working tirelessly to ensure the early learning and development community is a safe place for children across the nation. Of course, she is doing that work in collaboration with the federal education minister, Jason Clare. It is fair to say, and it has been said here before, that early childhood education is a federally funded sector, and much of the regulation around it falls on the federal government. Regardless of that, as we have said in here many, many times over many, many different subject matters, we are not waiting for the feds; we are taking action ourselves and we are taking it right now.

In the immediate response, the Allan Labor government announced the ban on the use of personal devices within childcare centres and the establishment of a register of early childhood educators and has already launched the child safety and early education and care and working with children check Victoria review that is underway. As I understand it, the rapid review is seeking to respond by 15 August, and that work is being led by Jay Weatherill AO and Pamela White PSM. They are working incredibly hard on that to deliver by that 15 August timeline. A commitment has been made by the minister – and I have heard it here in this chamber – that every recommendation from that investigation will be adopted by the government. Can I thank in advance the minister for having such a steadfast position in the lead-up to that final report coming through from Jay Weatherill and Pamela White.

This government has always put the safety of our most vulnerable Victorians at its forefront. In April we moved to review our working with children check scheme and update the worker screening regulation, a system that currently includes over 2 million people that hold a working with children check. We absolutely are focused on building a strong, child-safe environment by supporting educators, strengthening accountability and encouraging continuous improvement across our sectors. Protecting children remains at the heart of everything we do. Furthermore, can I just say we are dedicated to strengthening safeguards, promoting inclusive practices and supporting early intervention where needed. The protection of children is a shared responsibility across all layers of government, and we remain focused on building systems and services that prioritise the best interests of our youngest Victorians.

People who hold a working with children check are subject to ongoing monitoring of their criminal history and relevant disciplinary findings through multiple institutions in accordance with the Worker Screening Act 2020. With this, each year on average more than 400,000 applications and renewals are processed, contributing to our education, caretaking and community workforces throughout the state. It is a national issue, and a nationally consistent working with children check framework, with more security and higher penalties, absolutely must be a priority for the Commonwealth. I do not think that message can be any clearer than it has been from those here in Victoria.

There are, as we said, over 2 million working with children checks that have been issued in Victoria. All charges, convictions and findings of guilt for serious offences resulting in an exclusion do prohibit a person from working with children. There are also other elements where referrals are made and received from other authorities. I am thinking Victoria Police, the Commission for Children and Young People and the Victorian Institute of Teaching. Substantiated findings notified to the worker screening unit are considered in assessing new applications as well as in reassessing the suitability of current clearance holders. I could go through the list to say that there are 900 people that have had their clearance taken away due to the worker screening unit being notified of criminal matters and other relevant reasons. Under the current child safety standards, it is an employer’s responsibility to confirm whether their staff requires a check and to ensure that staff hold a current and valid clearance. Employers can verify that status through a range of measures, including the actual card itself, using the Service Victoria website, or using a bulk checker tool that is made available, particularly for those with multiple employees.

I might finish up my remarks by taking a moment to acknowledge and thank the United Workers Union and their predecessors, who for decades have championed early childhood educators in their pursuits to professionalise, recognise and enhance the big steps that value our future. Early childhood educators are the backbone of society. I have met with them and had the good fortune of being around that campaign for a very long time, and I know all the efforts that have been made by that union to ensure that they enjoy the respect and recognition, salary conditions and industrial respect that they absolutely deserve. And so, to the United Workers Union, I give you my thanks. It is important to remember that the disgusting actions of a tiny, tiny, tiny number of childhood educators does not reflect on the thousands of committed and inspiring early childhood educators, who show up each and every day and who continue to show up in the wake of these allegations out there in the community. So to you, can I thank you, honour you and pay you my deepest respects. You show up every day, looking after our youngest Victorians, when so many families so desperately rely on you to do the good that you do.

Early childhood workers consistently support and nurture children right across the state. They must not be forgotten in these decisions, because the care and compassion that I have seen from the many, many hundreds, not only across my electorate but across the country, has solidified my belief in the good of these workers. I hope the inquiry here and the other work that is being led by the government further enforce that. Anything we can do to further support that workforce so that they can deliver the very best service to our youngest Victorians is a good thing. Thank you to the union and thank you to the workers. Thank you for turning up. I know this must be a really tough and troubling time for so many of them out there in the community right now, and I just want to send them my thoughts. I do particularly know some male workers in the sector who are having an incredibly tough time right now turning up to work each and every day, and I just want to reinforce my thanks to them, because we will always stand on the side of workers who do the right thing. I look forward to this debate continuing today.

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (14:39): I am pleased to rise and make a contribution on motion 988 under Ms Anasina Gray-Barberio’s name and brought to the chamber by her on behalf of the Greens. This establishes a select committee of six members to inquire into, consider and report on the early childhood education and care sector in Victoria. This select committee I think dovetails very neatly and correctly with the documents motion we considered earlier in the day and indeed the referral that the Liberals and Nationals brought to the chamber in motion 989 to send part of this issue for examination by the Ombudsman under section 16 of the act. I am very pleased that both of those motions were carried clearly by the chamber, and I expect that this motion should be too, because it is actually a response to a completely unacceptable situation where we are not able to be assured that our children, the most vulnerable young children, in early childhood centres are safe in the way they should be. That clearly has to be dealt with. It has to be dealt with quickly. We do not need any cover-ups, and we have had that from this government. They say they are doing an inquiry, but it has got narrow terms of reference; they cut out some of the key points.

Even today in the Assembly, listening to Premier Jacinta Allan – she was not forthright, she was not clear and she was not honest in the way she responded to questions. We saw that in this chamber yesterday in particular with the Minister for Children not providing the answers that she could well have provided. We have heard –

Members interjecting.

David DAVIS: Well, we would have had anticipation. The advice from the clerks was that we would be anticipating this very motion if we asked questions on that matter.

Members interjecting.

David DAVIS: You can ask the clerks yourself. I am quite happy to comply with the rules of the chamber, and we asked different questions; there are many questions to ask this government. But the minister did not answer fulsomely yesterday. The minister sought to evade and abscond from her responsibilities, and that is completely and utterly unacceptable.

Let us be clear: this is an important motion. The Liberals and Nationals will support this motion. I put on record that we would frame the words a little bit differently if we had written them from scratch, but we accept that there are a range of views. I do not believe it is merely the private sector that is involved here. I think that there is a problem with the vetting process across government. I think there is a problem with the working with children checks. There is a problem with the way the regulation is operating for both public and private sector organisations in this state on these matters. In any event it does not matter where these problems are; they need to be dealt with. We need to make sure that our children are safe, and we need to make sure that the processes and the mechanisms are actually uncovering those who would harm them, who would treat them poorly and who would do some of these extraordinary things that have come forward in the recent period.

At the end of the day the fact is that this chamber has an important scrutiny and oversight role, and that is what the chamber is exercising today: looking for documents, making referrals to the Ombudsman on part of these matters and establishing an overarching select committee which will have the capacity to hold hearings – indeed will be required to hold hearings, will be able to ask the minister to come and answer questions where she cannot so easily evade them and will also be able to ask officials to come and explain what on earth has gone wrong.

One of the questions that needs to be answered is about how a number of years ago there was advice given to the government – advice from the children’s commissioner about these matters – and the government has chosen to ignore that and to let this drift on without proper attention and consequently, because of the government’s own failures and incompetence, exposed our children to risk. That is completely and utterly unacceptable in my view. I think this government should hang its head in shame about the way it has behaved.

I think that the select committee will be in a position to ask some of these questions in a tough and direct way. What has got to happen here is there has got to be a fair mechanism to actually bring government officials to account. We need to be in a position where the deep and chronic failures that have been exposed in our child protection system are actually dealt with. It cannot be allowed to continue, it cannot be allowed to drift on, and this motion, amongst the others today, is a part of beginning to address that.

Again, I was shocked when I watched question time in the lower house this this afternoon and I could see the Premier trying every trick in the book to avoid answering direct questions on things that she ought to have known the answer to. You would think that this matter would be beyond politics, but it clearly is not with this government. This government will do anything to protect its own people, to protect its own ministers, rather than actually hold them to account. These ministers have actually allowed this to drift and drift and drift. They have had warnings and they have not acted, and we need to know why. We need to know why they have been so tardy, why they have been so weak in their response and why they continue to try and cover up what has gone on here. The children’s commissioner was very clear about these matters a number of years ago, and the government chose to ignore that advice. Even what we heard in the Assembly today about the Premier’s failure to fess up and face up to the fact that the government has not acted properly on this is a sign, again, of an old, tired government. It is now in its 11th year. It is very distant from the community. It does not understand the concerns of the community, and it is prepared to, sadly, cover these things up to protect its own. Anyway, the key point here is that the committee –

Members interjecting.

David DAVIS: Well, I am implying that there is a cover-up. That is what I am implying, a failure to act. Listen to the questions in the lower house. Listen to the answers by this minister yesterday, the minister’s failure to answer questions properly yesterday – direct, simple questions that actually should properly have been answered. She would not answer them. She would not answer the questions. And why would she not answer the questions – because they are inconvenient questions, they are pointed questions and they are questions that go directly to her competence and her failure.

A member: You didn’t ask anything.

David DAVIS: I did, and so did Ms Crozier. We asked three questions directly to the minister on these matters, and she sought to hide –

Members interjecting.

David DAVIS: You heard what was in the statement of expectations that the very minister in the chamber here today wrote to the agencies. That statement of expectations lays out very clearly her own responsibility and her directions to the agencies to take certain steps. Well, I say that statement of expectations that Ms Crozier has pointed to closely today puts the minister here directly on notice. She has actually, in her own words, admitted responsibility for a number of these areas. So let us not have any of this ‘It’s a different portfolio’ nonsense. We know what is going on. We know it is an artifice and a device to cover up the minister’s responsibility and the minister’s own failure. In any event, as I said, the truth of the matter is the select committee will have the opportunity to have ministerial input, to have input from a range of bureaucratic witnesses and to look for the documents that are relevant.

Lizzie Blandthorn: On a point of order, Acting President, I take offence at the suggestion that I am indeed in any way responsible for a cover-up, and I ask that the accusation be withdrawn.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (John Berger): Mr Davis, I would ask that you withdraw that accusation.

David DAVIS: I think, Acting President, that it is true.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (John Berger): I ask you to withdraw the accusation.

David DAVIS: I withdraw. The government is deeply involved in a direct cover-up here. They want to –

Lizzie Blandthorn: On a point of order, Acting President, given the subsequent comment, I would again ask that it be withdrawn.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (John Berger): Mr Davis, I ask you to withdraw that comment.

Members interjecting.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (John Berger): Minister, I will dismiss that point of order, and I will call the next speaker.

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (14:50): The matters that have led us to today and the debate are exceptionally serious and exceptionally distressing. I think that certainly the way that the seriousness with which most in the community have taken the issues at hand and the approach that they have taken, including the minister and the government, to make sure that these exceptionally distressing and serious issues are properly dealt with is to be commended. The conduct – worryingly, I think – we have just witnessed from the Liberal Party and their leader is a relentless politicisation of tragedy, to use some words that my colleague Ms Terpstra uttered earlier. It is a relentless politicisation of tragedy, which I think diminishes those who seek to do so in such a way. For the Leader of the Liberal Party in this place to make quite distressing allegations against the minister and the government – that they are not taking this issue seriously – I think is a disgrace. I do not want to repeat the words that they have used, but I think they have set themselves a bar of what they are going to need to be able to demonstrate over the course of this select committee’s work. If the Liberal Party is unable to substantiate the very serious allegations that their leader in this place has just uttered, then they –

Ann-Marie Hermans: On a point of order, Acting President, I feel that this is completely off topic. It is actually unfair to be making an allegation about the Leader of the Liberal Party. The Leader of the Liberal Party has absolutely nothing to do –

The ACTING PRESIDENT (John Berger): Mrs Hermans, it is a not a point of order.

Ryan BATCHELOR: Maybe members of the Liberal Party who sit behind their leader may wish to express to him privately their concerns about what he has done and what he has said. If they are unable to substantiate their claims, he needs to come back in here after this report is tabled and apologise.

More broadly, I want to go back to the substance of these issues, because they are so critical. And I do not think Mr Davis warrants the airtime he is getting in this debate, because this is a debate about how to best safeguard children in this state. This is a debate about how to best make sure that the children who go to our early childhood settings and who go to our childcare settings are given the absolute best, highest-quality and safest care that they possibly can get. That is the goal of everyone who is involved in the regulation of early childhood settings here in this country from the Commonwealth level through to the state level and also for those involved at a local government level, because it is a sector that has various levels of government involved in the policy settings in various ways. I think one of the things that we are seeing in the course of the discussion about the circumstances that have led us here – and I do not want to get into the specifics of the case before us, because Victoria Police have that matter in hand before the courts and I think it is exceptionally dangerous for us to stray into the territory of an individual case, because we want justice to take its course. The policy implications, however, are things that we should be looking at and should be examining. There are a series of policy issues that have had a bearing on the way that our early childhood settings in this country have operated over many years, a limited scope of which is dealt with at a state level.

There are more significant matters about the structure of the childcare industry in this country which are the remit of the Commonwealth. Particularly the way that the funding to the sector, the subsidies to the sector and the proliferation of for-profit childcare providers has occurred in our community over the last couple of decades are matters that rest with the Commonwealth. There have been significant recent inquiries by the Productivity Commission and by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission with exceptionally comprehensive and detailed reports on the structure of the childcare sector, market or industry – whatever word you want to use. I think it will be useful for this inquiry – should the motion be successful today, and I expect that it will be – to examine those issues.

Obviously, within that context the state does have a role to assist in both the quality frameworks that exist with the Australian early years quality agency and then also with the safety division with the work that is done on safety and child safeguarding. We always need to be ensuring with all of these settings, whether they be the very significant work and very public work that the national quality agency does with respect to publicly reporting on quality in early childhood settings or whether it be the more detailed work on safeguarding that is done by a state agency, that that process involves constant monitoring of all of the risk factors that exist in the sector. I think it was a little bit unfortunate that other contributions to the debate today and more broadly have tried to imply that there are some kinds of secret documents and secret lists that exist here.

What we have in the way that the safety and quality regulation and monitoring are done at the state level is a constant and continuing dynamic assessment of the risks that individual centres face, done so in the context that there are significant operators and a large number of premises where the provision of early years services occurs throughout the state. And the sad reality is that despite our best efforts in the community, there is clearly evil in the world. It is not just Victoria that has faced this; we have had very distressing incidents, charges and convictions in other jurisdictions in recent years, and I think all of those who have read those reports and seen those prior cases can only look on in horror at what has occurred.

The system has to be set up and the system has to operate to do the absolute best job that it can. The government, in responding to the circumstances that have unfolded here in Melbourne in the last couple of months, has taken determined action, with things like bans on personal electronic devices being used in centres, with the rapid review that has been initiated and with the settings that it has committed to implementing when the report is received in the next few weeks. It is an exceptionally important part of our community. It is an exceptionally important issue to make sure that our children are looked after. We do that system no great service by the relentless politicisation of it. This committee, if it is able to do a job that thoroughly examines the policy settings, how to make improvements and how to keep our children safe, will be doing them a great service, and we hope that all those who participate in that process have that same objective.

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (15:00): I too rise today to speak on an Anasina Gray-Barberio’s motion on behalf of the Greens to have a select committee of six members to be appointed to inquire into, consider and report on the early childhood education and care sector in Victoria. I do applaud the opportunity to make sure that we can investigate this at such a deep level as to ensure not only that our children are safe in early child care but that the regulations are thorough and that everybody involved in the regulatory process is investigated.

The more I think about this situation, the more appalled I become. To think that this has been the result of a man allegedly abusing numerous babies and toddlers – not just abusing them but using a phone to take photographs, footage, pornography of people’s babies being abused. The more I think about it, the more I cannot understand the delay in this government. Anybody that has a love for their children, a sense of protection, a desire to protect a newborn, a young one, an infant could only be appalled at the delay and can only welcome the opportunity to have an inquiry that will actually get to the bottom of what is going on and what has happened and who has been responsible for the lack of procedures. It really bothers me to think, when we compare Victorian governments to New South Wales on a regular basis, that there is such a distinction with New South Wales, who care about transparency and accountability to make sure that their children are safe. Yet in Victoria we have to wait until something like this surfaces, and we then decide, ‘Now we must come out with some sort of a response.’ Well, people do not just want a response, they do not want lip-service and they do not want a framework that is not going to work. This should never happen in this day and age under any state government ever in Australia.

It is appalling to think that we have got to this point, and one has to wonder: what is this government hiding? What is it hiding when it wants to put stringent restrictions on when there are requests for documentation and those documents are not forwarded in a way that allows people to have that transparency, to have the oversight to be able to check that things are being done properly? What is this government hiding? How many of our babies out there are being abused and it is being covered up? How big is the porn industry in Victoria with our children if photos are going out? Where are they going to? What else is taking place? That is why there are restrictions coming in in childcare centres on phones. Otherwise I would actually not be wanting to have those restrictions for people, because you would think that in an emergency it might actually be helpful to be able to have that access. But the fact that those phones can be used for photography and the fact that the phones can be used to actually make babies vulnerable and susceptible to misuse is absolutely appalling.

Many of these recommendations are just so well thought out and are very thorough. I really applaud the fact that we will have a committee that will have two from the opposition, two from the government and two from the crossbench. However, I am a little bit heartbroken to see – obviously it needs to be a thorough investigation – that the final report is not due until the 30 July 2026, because I can only imagine how many lives are going to be interrupted and destroyed between now and July 2026, when the reality of this situation has completely unfolded and been reported on and the report has been dropped. I just do not know how to explain to people that do not have a full understanding of the effects of sexual abuse on children that it is a lifelong sentence for people who are abused. A committee is a fantastic thing, but it saddens me to think that it is going to take so much time. I understand that we have so many other committees taking place at the moment for a number of different issues that are going wrong in this state under this Labor government, but it just breaks my heart to think that the committee will not provide the final report until 30 July 2026. To me, it is not soon enough, the action is not quick enough and it is not immediate enough.

In every other area there is so much that is really great about this motion. Of course as an opposition we feel very strongly about protecting families and children. As I said before, it was three years ago that we attempted to have all of the Ombudsman’s report exposed so that we could see what had actually been implemented and what had not. During the time of the Betrayal of Trust report, an investigation under the Liberals, we were able to make sure that there were safeguards in institutions. It just breaks my heart, as I said earlier, to think that childcare centres, where I know some really great people work for very little money, are in this situation where we have children who are so vulnerable and are being abused.

I strongly support the fact that we will have the opportunity for a committee inquiry. I strongly support the idea and the concept of public hearings. I think that this is the sort of thing where, as a parent, if that was my baby in that childcare centre, depending on how I was coping with the situation – because let us face it, this is a pretty difficult thing for any parent to have to cope with, to think that you have not been able to protect your own child in a childcare centre – I would want to know. I think that there will be grandparents, aunties, uncles, friends and family members and people who themselves have suffered abuse in the past who may choose to be part of these public hearings. Certainly childcare workers that have raised alarms in the past about potential causes for concern, like the 21-year-old student who raised concerns that were dismissed or put back on them as a student – I think people that work in the industry will 100 per cent be wanting to follow this inquiry.

It is so necessary and so overdue for this government to have to be transparent in this area. We have been calling for it on a number of fronts. We have those concerns about Aboriginal children in care. We have concerns about the foster care system and some of the children that have parents that are mentioning extraordinary situations where the change in behaviour of their children would and could suggest abuse. These are things that we need to be dealing with. It is incredibly serious. It cannot come soon enough. I am so appalled by this government. I am so appalled that it has taken so long and has taken the crossbench and the opposition to have to force this after a disaster has finally surfaced and been revealed to the whole world. This is an embarrassment that is global. It is shameful. It is embarrassing. I wholeheartedly support the concept of a committee, and I thank the crossbench for bringing it forward to the house.

Sonja TERPSTRA (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (15:10): I rise to make a contribution to this motion standing in Ms Gray-Barberio’s name, and I just want to thank her for providing the chamber with transparency around the amendments that she made to the motion, because it is different to what is on the notice paper slightly. She pointed out those amendments, so I am grateful to her for that.

I have been sitting in the chamber for a while. I have had the benefit of listening to some of the contributions. I have to say at the outset, I know this is a committee referral, but what is at the heart of this is the tragic set of circumstances and the horrific and heartbreaking circumstances surrounding some really disgusting and tragic child sex abuse allegations. What I want to say at the outset is that I am very conscious that there will be legal proceedings on foot in regard to these matters, and I think everyone in this chamber needs to be very, very careful about the way in which they discuss these matters today. The whole day has been pretty much spent discussing a range of matters that are surrounding this matter. I want to make sure that, for anyone who has been a victim of a crime – and I am not speaking about this particular matter but in general – any legal proceedings that are on foot occur so that justice can be served and so no-one who might have a right to access justice, who might be a victim, has their rights impinged by anything that is said in this chamber or in fact that might be said in the context of the proceedings of a select committee where people will be looking at various systems around the regulation of child care and childcare workers and working with children checks. It would be a travesty if something that was said by one of us in here resulted in somebody having a trial that was aborted or victims not having access to justice. It is a very real concern. I know you are not a lawyer, Mrs Hermans. I am, and I have very real concerns about some of the things that have been said in this chamber today.

For example, there has been some pretty heavy quoting of an Age article and something that was reported in the Age, where it was reportedly said that there is a watchlist that the quality assurance and regulation division has – a secret watchlist. Well, that is garbage. That is why if we come into the chamber and start to talk about what is reported in the media, we are on a very slippery slope, because we have got to make sure we deal with facts. In fact that is why we have agencies like the police and like other agencies who are trained and equipped to deal with matters pertaining to child abuse, who are experts and who are trained to deal with these sorts of matters. Politicians in here who want to politic around this – it is shameful and disgusting. I have been consistent in my interjections all day on this matter, that bringing a motion for a joint select committee to inquire into some of the matters that surround what has been alleged is nothing more than disgraceful and disgusting politicking, because what we need to remember is there are families attached to this and there are children attached to this, young and vulnerable children who might ask their parents in 10 years time, ‘Mummy, did I go to that centre?’ So shame on everybody in here who supports this motion today. Shame on those opposite who are accusing the government of a cover-up. That is an outrageous slur on this government. What I want to see is the police do their job unimpeded and unhindered by anything that might be said and publicly reported on. I want to see the regulator do their job and inquire into and investigate any failings that might have occurred in the system. That is what I want to see. Anybody who cares about children would absolutely want to put that first and foremost on their mind before wanting to enter into nothing more than a political exercise.

We are politicians. We are not experts in this field. This is a joke. I want to see anybody who is impacted by this matter get access to justice. And for all we know, there may be other victims. There may be other families. We do not know this. Let the police do their job. Let the courts then deal with matters that have been referred to them.

Again, I am disgusted by the constant politicking of tragic and disgusting circumstances. I know as a parent – and I know there are many people who I spoke to on the day when this news broke – many people were sickened to their stomachs to hear about what had happened, as I was. There would not be a person in here who does not want to see children protected from any sorts of violent acts or sickening acts, and to come in here and say that the government is covering this up is actually a new low, and the Leader of the Opposition in this chamber did nothing but harp on about that today. It is disgusting. It really is disgusting, and it is a new low.

In terms of what the government is doing – and this is why I think this motion is ill-conceived – the motion talks about the report by this joint select committee being done by 30 July next year, so there is going to be almost a whole year of this, where this is going to continue to get ventilated. But the rapid review that the government has commissioned into this matter talks about a report being delivered by 15 August, which is about two weeks away. We have commissioned an urgent and rapid review into the systems that regulate the industry so that we can look at those recommendations, and we have committed to adopting every recommendation of the review and implementing them as soon as possible. The fact that this motion calls for a joint select committee to continue to discuss this for a whole nother year completely exposes the real and true agenda of those opposite – and the Greens, quite frankly – to continue to politicise around this, to put victims rights at the bottom of any of their agendas, to put them right at the bottom. It is disgusting.

I will just do a quick segue into another issue for a moment. I was a young organiser many, many years ago, when I was organising childcare workers in the childcare industry. I had never met a bunch of more dedicated, professional and hardworking, caring individuals, but that was at a time when the sector was really a not-for-profit sector and largely run by local government. There was a strong regulator, a tough cop on the beat, which was feared by everybody, and standards were upheld to the highest order. But then we saw the Commonwealth government introduce the use of the childcare subsidy, and many, many for-profit providers entered the market. So of course, what happens when you see market failure is everyone says the government is responsible for this. Yes, well, I can tell you which government was responsible: it was the Howard government, who introduced the childcare subsidy. Now we have a market that is overpopulated with for-profit providers; there are not a lot of not-for-profit providers around. In fact it was this government, the Victorian Labor government, that had to, because of the various childcare deserts and lack of availability of childcare centres, establish 50 government owned and operated early learning centres, because guess what, no private provider would want to do it. Why? Because there was no profit in it.

So here is the problem: anytime you want to profit from the care of vulnerable people, you end up with market failures, and here we are. Those opposite can mock and all the rest of it as much as they like, but I am telling you right now, a society will always be judged by how it treat its most vulnerable people, and that includes young people, children and the elderly. There are some things that should never be for profit, and early childhood education and care is one of those things. When we have market failures it is always up to government to come in and mop up the mess. And of course talking about the types of centres where these sorts of things have gone on; they are for-profit centres at the moment.

I will go back to my earlier remarks. What I am concerned about is that any illegal activity or criminal activity needs to be dealt with by the police. We need to be very careful in the manner in which we speak about these matters. We need to be very careful about the way in which any evidence is presented to the inquiry, that it does not prejudice anybody’s right to a fair trial or the right of victims to get access to justice, not to mention the fact that parents might be trying to deal with and comfort their children about the trauma that they may have experienced. You are also taking away any control from victims or parents to try and manage this. This will have a long tail, but that is lost on those opposite and it is also lost on the Greens, because all those opposite and the Greens want to do is engage in disgusting politicisation of trauma and sadness, and it should be condemned. I will conclude my remarks there.

Moira DEEMING (Western Metropolitan) (15:20): While I will not be standing in the way of this inquiry, I have to say that I am pretty disgusted that the political response to children being raped in child care in my region is just another inquiry, another delay and another round of bureaucratic nonsense instead of action – instead of actually legislating to protect children. What we are facing is not actually a one-off failure. It is not just a bureaucratic oversight. It is not the result of one bad actor at just a few centres. It is obviously the result of an absolutely and utterly broken safeguarding system. It has been weakened by delay, blinded by ideology and hollowed out by cowardice, and now we have thousands of children being tested for STIs.

For 12 years this Parliament has received report after report declaring that Victoria’s child safeguarding framework is unfit for purpose, from Betrayal of Trust in 2013 through to the royal commission in 2017, Ombudsman and Auditor-General audits and last year’s reportable conduct scheme review. Seven major inquiries have repeated the same core recommendations 37 times, yet most of these recommendations are just sitting on ministerial shelves, and here we are again discussing early childhood safety, not because the answers are actually unknown or we need experts to figure out what child safeguarding is but because this government just has refused to legislate them. In 2022 the Victorian Ombudsman declared that our working with children check system was amongst the weakest in the nation. She warned that it lacked automatic suspensions, had no mandatory training and could not detect people under police investigation for child abuse. And what happened? Nothing – no reform, no urgency, just another report shelved. As a result serious offenders were able to hold valid working with children checks while working in child care, including Joshua Brown and Ron Marks.

There is just no excuse. We all saw exactly what this government can get done when they put their mind to it during COVID. When they want to use the powers of government to get things done snappy like, they do. There have already been rapid and urgent reviews into child safeguards, and the recommendations were never put into law. Here are some of the laws and things that they did manage to do over that same period of time – but before I talk about that, I would like to talk about the actual heart of the problem, and the heart of the problem is how we here in Victoria are going to view what children actually are.

Aren’t we all outraged here today because we know that by definition children are presexual, non-sexual, unable to consent or to understand sex, vulnerable to exploitation and coercion? I know that is what most Victorians think. Why then has this government allowed the introduction of the idea that children are sexual beings capable of consent, which is a radical shift from traditional child protection principles? Influential academics like Gary Dowsett have said that some relationships between adults and children are sexual, referencing ‘the legal right of paedophiles and their young lovers’ and ‘the sexual rights of children as a whole’. Steven Angelides has said ‘children can frequently experience sexual pleasure’ and children’s sexual desires must be ‘normalised’. Both of these scholars’ works have been cited in Victorian education and sexuality policy contexts, including Safe Schools biographies and La Trobe’s safe and inclusive schools resources. Despite these citations, no Victorian department or child safety body has publicly critiqued the ideological implications of referencing authors who argue for something called ‘the sexual agency of children’. By adopting frameworks that treat children as autonomous sexual agents, safeguarding is being redefined in this state in ways that expose children to risk rather than protect them. What about allowing children in brothels? That is another one of this government’s bright ideas. In commercial brothels, children under the age of 18 months, and in home brothels, there is no limit – all children of all ages.

What about forbidding clinicians from diagnosing adults with a sexual attraction to children as having a mental health disorder rather than just one of many sexualities? Under the Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022 in Victoria the law precludes clinicians from diagnosing an adult as having a mental health disorder simply on the basis of them admitting to and exhibiting a sexual attraction to children. There are no caveats – even if that person has engaged in a certain pattern of sexual behaviour or engages in conduct that is contrary to community standards of acceptable conduct or engages in illegal conduct. That means if a clinician has a patient with a self-proclaimed paedophilic preference and a known pattern for acting on it, they cannot diagnose that person with a red flag that would preclude them from working with vulnerable children. It is ridiculous. We do not need any more inquiries. We know perfectly well what is going on, and it is an absolutely epic disgrace. There is going to be another round of apologising to the next generation of children who, under your watch, have been terribly abused and then victimised again and blamed for it because of this redefinition of what a child is.

John BERGER (Southern Metropolitan) (15:27): Today I rise to speak on this important issue of child safety in our kindergartens and childcare facilities. I welcome the opportunity for this chamber to debate the issues, because child safety should always be a top priority for the Parliament, in just the same way that it is the top priority for the Allan Labor government. Child care is regulated under the national framework, and this is important to remember, but the Allan Labor government is still acting where it can. All Victorians were sickened by the allegations over the winter break. Families must be able to trust that their children are safe in these environments, and every level of government must do everything it can to ensure that. That is why the Allan Labor government has taken action to address this issue. To start with, we have banned the use of personal devices like mobile phones by staff inside childcare centres. The ban will be in place starting in September, giving the industry the time it needs to adapt but also making the change soon enough to reflect the urgency that this issue deserves. We are doing this because the safety of children has come first in every single thing that we do in our childcare sector. Because of the actions of a few, the rules are changing for everyone to ensure that nothing like this can happen ever again.

We are also creating a childcare worker register that will be ready to go in August, which will help us to know who has worked where and when. This register will apply to all staff – full-time, part-time and casual, teaching and non-teaching staff alike. Anybody who has direct and regular contact with children in the context of childcare centres will be required to be on the register. We have also commissioned an urgent review to be led by Jay Weatherill and Pamela White. Both of these appointees are beyond qualified for the role and have demonstrated across their long careers not only expertise in the issues that matter to this inquiry but also a dedication and commitment to public service. Jay Weatherill is best known as the former Premier of South Australia, but before taking that role he also served over there as the state’s Minister for Early Childhood and Development from 2008 to 2011. In his post-politics career Mr Weatherill has continued in his commitment to building an early childhood education system fit for purpose in the 21st century with child safety at its core, working at the Minderoo Foundation’s Thrive by Five program.

Pamela White, the chair of the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority, also brings expertise directly relevant to the challenges we are facing, particularly as they relate to the issue of the workforce register. Specifically, the review into child safety in early childhood education and care settings and the working with children check in Victoria falls under that purview. It does not take a genius to see how Mr Weatherill and Ms White are overqualified for this job, which is the only way that this government would have it on an issue this serious. The Premier has already said that her government will accept and adopt each and every one of the recommendations made by this report. She has made it clear that there is no price too high for us to pay, no burden too great for us to bear when it comes to keeping our children safe. That is why we have both taken immediate action and are planning out the long-term solution to make sure that this can never happen again.

We were all shocked a few weeks ago to read the reports of what had happened. One educator arrested was charged with 70 offences, with over 1000 children urgently sent for medical testing out of a fear that they may have been victims too. To say that it would be every parent’s worst nightmare would be an understatement. I know that parents across all of the state and the country have been paying close attention to this issue – and those in areas not affected by this particular case. If such a prolific abuser could be allowed to work in the system across a number of childcare centres in one area, people are right to worry that there could be other abusers allowed to work freely in the system too. That is why the work that this government is doing is so important. The story does not end when one abuser is arrested, because if there are systemic faults which allow people like the man who was arrested to work in the system, then the work continues to remedy them. We will continue to work to root out any kind of abuse out of the system and restore faith in the system for parents, who are understandably feeling shaken in the light of these developments.

For so many parents, especially working parents, there is no option but to leave their kids in a childcare centre. The circumstances of their lives and their careers may leave them no choice but to participate in the system, so it can be a terrifying thought for all parents, but especially for those with no choice but to leave their kids in child care every day, that our system for preventing child abuse would not be up to scratch.

So you can understand why it is so important that we root out any abuse or potential for abuse within the system. We must restore the public’s faith in our childcare system, because an early childhood education is such an important part of every young person’s development. The education that they receive there, as well as the socialisation with other kids their age, is incredibly important in their preparation to begin primary school. That is why the Best Start, Best Life reforms continue to be so important, because all children deserve a quality early childhood education. These reforms include three- and four-year-old kinder, an introduction to pre-prep and the creation of 50 new early learning centres in areas with the most demand. Infrastructure and capacity upgrades at existing locations are planned to recruit and attract the workforce that the industry needs.

As important as all this work is, it sadly will be all for naught if the public has no faith that their kids will be safe when they leave them there for the day. It is an extraordinary act of trust to leave your child for the whole day with people who you do not know. The reasons why parents trust these centres, particularly if it is a centre that they have not used before, is because they have faith in the institution of early childhood education itself. They need to have faith that the employees are professionally qualified and that the centre is being run accordingly to the highest standards set out for it. That is why we generate this trust. When one employee breaches that trust it sadly affects everybody, including the vast majority of early childhood workers who are doing the right thing and who are just as disturbed as the rest of us by what was revealed in the last few weeks. That is why the role of the state government is not only to drive the systemic reform that ensures that this sort of abuse cannot happen again, but also to restore faith in the public system.

One thing that I know many parents want is for action not to be delayed and put off into the future, but for it to happen now, so I think it is appropriate for me to set out the timelines here for when we can expect each of the actions which we took to materialise themselves. The urgent review into child safety led by Jay Weatherill and Pamela White can be expected to report back to the government on Friday 15 August. The government has already committed itself to adopting every one of this review’s recommendations and will seek to implement them as quickly as possible. The register of early childhood educators will be up and running by late August. The ban on personal devices will be enforced from Friday 26 September.

The strength and decisiveness of the government’s response to this issue has demonstrated just how seriously we take child safety. It is so important that parents will be able to see things start to change over the next few months. They will see these changes being implemented, and they will see further changes come through once the review has been handed down. I want to emphasise as well that most parents will appreciate that we are taking an approach that recognises the urgency and need for immediate action, as we have a moral imperative to address the issues as quickly as possible. When things like this come up, parents often make decisions day to day, so it would not have been much use if we had held off the review until next year, when we might have more time for it, or made it another time, because the situation had to be dealt with. At the same time, parents will equally appreciate that we have taken a long-term approach as well. Some measures can be implemented overnight, others take a few months and others years. It is important that we act with urgency but we do not rush. I think that parents will also appreciate that we have committed ourselves to implementing the recommendations of the review ahead of it being completed, showing that rain, hail or shine, whether it is easy or difficult, we will always put child safety first.

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (15:35): I rise to speak to the motion in Ms Gray-Barberio’s name to establish a select committee of six members to be appointed to inquire into, consider and report on the early childhood education and care sector in Victoria. The motion outlines the various concerns that Ms Gray-Barberio has highlighted in relation to why this inquiry should be established and what it should look at.

We know what the issue is here, because we have been discussing the very important issue around the childcare sector and the failings because of the inadequacies of what the government did – or their lack of response – and what they did after warnings with the working with children check, with the Ombudsman’s report from 2022, the multiple failures that this government has overseen and the very, very concerning allegations that have come to light in recent weeks. Government members are all saying that they are very concerned about what has gone on and that they are taking their time and must get it right. Well, they have had years to get this right, and there is no excuse for the failure to address the gaps in the system that were highlighted by the Ombudsman. That report came down three years ago and made recommendations to improve that very element. The nub of what this inquiry will do if it is established, if the house agrees to it, is to look into the sector and to have a look at the issues around it. In short, as the motion states, it is to look at the adequacy of current quality and safety standards across all early childhood, education and care service types and:

the quality and oversight of educator training, professional development and qualifications, including a review of the effectiveness of Working with Children Checks and of Registered Training Organisations issuing early childhood certifications …

I think, again, this is where the massive shortfall has been and the catastrophic failings have occurred as a result of the government’s inaction. They were warned and they did nothing. It just is incomprehensible how they got it so wrong, and yet they are, as we have heard in the chamber today, blaming others for their failings. No-one has taken any responsibility. No-one has been accountable for these failings. It is just stunning. So it is really important that we get to the issue around what has gone on.

The inquiry, if set up, will look at the entire sector – it is made up of public, not-for-profit and cooperative models – in terms of accessibility, affordability, safety and outcomes, looking at how those different models work and if there are any shortfalls or any areas for improvement or impacts, including, as the motion says:

the impact of workforce conditions …

the adequacy of staff-to-child ratio regulations …

It will look at how they may be impacted across entire services rather than just being applied per room, and:

whether there is sufficient oversight of the Department of Education and the role it plays in monitoring and maintaining child safety …

Again, we heard that in the debate earlier today – that the quality assessment and regulation division, the regulator within the department, is not even being looked at in the government’s own rapid review. The government’s own review looking into this issue where they have finally – well, they had to address the failings, clearly – is not even looking at the actual regulator that has overseen a lot of these failings. We must look at that. And so that is, again, a very important part of what the department does, what it has done and what it has not done. It is a responsibility for us in this Parliament to do everything we can to ensure child safe standards are adhered to and the regulations are appropriately being monitored.

The inquiry, if it is successful, will also look at any other matters in relation to the adequacy, implementation, compliance and/or enforcement of child safety standards and regulations within the sector. An interim report would be handed down by 30 March and the final report to the Parliament by 30 July 2026. I will not go into the machinery of what the committee will be made up of – it is all highlighted in the motion – but I think the nub of the motion is very important. We must do everything we can. We must understand the failings, and that is what this committee will do. It will be established and look at those specific issues and any other issues that the committee might feel are warranted and needed.

I do think that, given the serious nature of the failings of what has happened under the Allan Labor government in ignoring the recommendations of the Ombudsman in 2022 about the working with children checks and with those recommendations that would have improved childcare safety standards and safety measures and prevented what we have found out in recent weeks with the alleged circumstances of Joshua Brown and the alleged activities that have horrified all Victorians, and especially those parents and grandparents who have children in these settings, we must do everything we can to ensure that those failings by government and what has happened in the system do not happen again. I would urge the government to support this important inquiry and let the Parliament do its work, because that is what we are here for, to look at these very issues and make recommendations to improve the safety of children. That is our responsibility, and I would hope that the government see it as their responsibility in joining with the Greens and other members who are in support of this motion to establish this committee and get this work up and running.

Anasina GRAY-BARBERIO (Northern Metropolitan) (15:43): I would like to thank everybody that has contributed to the Greens motion today regarding a select committee into the early childhood education and care sector. We can all agree that this is a really important issue that requires transparency and accountability, but it is also an opportunity to scrutinise how after the events that have eventuated in the last few weeks have allowed for the exploitation of and sexual violence against our babies and our young children in early childhood settings. We can all agree that this is unacceptable, but we can also agree something can be done about it. This government have a responsibility not just to this Parliament but to the Victorian public to take action, exercise their moral compass and do the right thing. Now is not the time to retreat from their responsibilities.

It has been very clear from the majority of the contributions made today by members from across the chamber that this does go beyond the political spectrum, that what is at risk here goes beyond political persuasion. The Greens call upon everybody to support this motion for this inquiry so that we can fix and understand the severity of this issue and find a path forward so that events that have occurred and transpired in the last few weeks cannot be repeated, because then we are failing the next generation of children that are going to be going to early childcare settings if we are not going to do our jobs as legislators to scrutinise. But we cannot do this if the government does not come to the table. I would like to once again thank everybody for their contributions and for their honest feedback and commend this motion to the house.

Motion agreed to.