Wednesday, 12 August 2026

 Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (12:34): (1410) My question is to the Minister for Children. Minister, Richard Irving was issued with a working with children check and cleared to work with the registered charity Habitat for Humanity despite being arrested that same month for the online grooming of a 14-year-old girl. Minister, how did your department allow this to happen?

 Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:34): I thank Mr Mulholland for his question. Obviously this chamber has referred the responsibility for these matters to an independent authority. I cannot comment on individual matters, and I will not be doing that in this case. But what I will talk to is the important steps that have been taken by this chamber, indeed by all of us collectively, and particularly through the Social Services Regulator and our department to improve child safety. The regulator has the responsibility for investigating matters, and the regulator has made it very clear that he will be taking investigatory actions further. Through the Social Services Regulator we acquitted the recommendations of the child safety review, which gave the Social Services Regulator the power to undertake those investigations. It means that the administration of the working with children check, the reportable conduct scheme and the Child Safe Standards have all transferred to the responsibility of the Social Services Regulator, a responsibility I know he takes seriously.

In relation to the working with children check through the Social Services Regulation Amendment (Child Safety, Complaints and Worker Regulation) Bill 2025, we obviously have acquitted the recommendations. That was causing some consternation for all of us in relation to the Ombudsman’s report. But we went further by requiring that working with children check applicants undergo child safety training and testing as part of their application process, requiring organisations to verify when they have engaged a working with children clearance holder to ensure the status of a person’s working with children check can be monitored when people move between roles and employment. There is an obligation on employers and on organisations to ensure that there is a valid working with children check. If those employers or organisations are not doing that, the chamber last December gave the powers to the Social Services Regulator for that to be enabled and to be followed. So there has been extensive work, with a bipartisan commitment from this chamber, to ensure that the Social Services Regulator has those powers, that the Social Services Regulator has increased powers in relation to the working with children check, and that they have the independent responsibility in order to ensure that we are keeping children safe.

 Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (12:36): Minister, according to your government’s regulatory schemes, including Child Safe Standards, the reportable conduct scheme and the working with children requirements, Irving should have been suspended from any work with children after he was arrested. How did this breach occur?

 Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:37): Again I thank Mr Mulholland for his question, and I refer him to my substantive answer, which made it very clear that the Social Services Regulator, as an independent authority, has the responsibility for making investigations. That is publicly available information, and the Social Services Regulator takes those responsibilities seriously.