Jacinta Allan's ‘folly' work from home plan slammed
'It's taken a couple of days, but leading business figures are now starting to point out the folly of what Jacinta Allan is trying to do,' Mr Price said.
'Lawyers have explained to her that she can't legally do it anyway.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
AU Financial Review
an hour ago
- AU Financial Review
Fundies ponder whether there's a CBA for small-cap investors
Gus McCubbing is a markets reporter in the Melbourne newsroom. He was previously the Australian Financial Review's Victorian political correspondent.
The Advertiser
an hour ago
- The Advertiser
Big Battery Boom: should regional Australia be worried about fires?
Australia is in the midst of a big battery boom, with hundreds of mega-batteries soon to be dotted across regional areas. But the boom has brought concerns from country residents, farmers, and even volunteer firefighters about the potential fire risks it could bring with it. To find out more, ACM went inside an operational big battery to learn how it worked and how risky it really was. Australia is in the grips of an energy revolution that is transforming many regional areas. Wind and solar farms have been the most obvious part of that change, but batteries are the next crucial piece: a power source when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine. There are 30 big batteries operating across the country - seven in Victoria, six each in NSW, Queensland and SA, and eight in WA. These 30 batteries can store 3 gigawatts (GW) of power. But forecasts by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) show Australia will need at least 22GW by 2030 and 49GW by 2050. That's a lot more batteries, and most of them will be built in regional areas. Ballarat, Warrnambool, Albury-Wodonga and Newcastle will all have a handful of batteries around them in the next five years, but nearly every regional town will have at least one nearby. ACM travelled to Gippsland in south-east Victoria to visit a big battery built on the site of the former Hazelwood coal-fired power station. Hazelwood was Australia's dirtiest power plant when it was decommissioned in 2017. Its owners - the French energy company Engie - decided to replace the power station with a battery, to make use of the huge power lines that once plugged into the plant. Compared to the towering chimneys of the coal plant, Hazelwood's big battery is pretty modest. It resembles a large gravel car park, but instead of cars, it is dotted with dozens of white metal cubes arranged in rows of six. Each cube contains 14 batteries about the same size as you would find in a small electric vehicle. The battery is just 18 months old, coming online in December 2023 at a cost of somewhere near $150 million. At 150 megawatts (MW), it is equivalent to 30,000 rooftop solar systems generating for an hour. The whole site emits a low roar - the sound of hundreds of industrial fans cooling the battery units. Batteries have an unfortunate association with fire in the public imagination, driven largely by regular videos of electric scooters, e-bikes and electric cars catching on fire. Engie media manager Dylan Quinell says there is a wide spectrum of fire safety protection depending on the type of battery use. "At the bottom, in terms of regulation, you'd have things like electric scooters," Mr Quinell says. "EVs have much better fail-safes and protections, but then with a BESS it's much higher again." But big batteries have caught on fire in the past. The Victorian government's Tesla battery outside Geelong caught fire during testing in July 2021. The battery had been offline at the time of the fire, meaning its monitoring and prevention measures were off. Another Tesla battery near Rockhampton in Queensland also caught fire in September 2023, and one of the world's largest batteries caught fire in California in January 2025. It has spurred concerns in some regional communities about the bushfire risk big batteries could pose. An ABC report in May 2025 revealed CFA volunteers in Dederang in northern Victoria were opposed to a proposed big battery near the town. CFA member Doug Connors said volunteers weren't equipped to fight battery fires. "As a brigade, we're equipped and trained to fight grass and scrub fires," Mr Connors said. The coordinator of Hazelwood's big battery, Jonathan Vila, says he can understand the concerns, but the Hazelwood site was extremely safe. "The batteries here are made from lithium iron phosphate, which is less volatile than previous battery technologies," Mr Vila says. "Each battery cube is fan and liquid cooled and has a system that sends an alert if there's any problem. Mr Vila says each cube can isolate from the rest of the big battery system instantaneously, and there's a temperature trigger that fills the cube with chemical firefighting foam if it gets too hot. "The US manufacturer, Fluence, has done extensive testing, trying really hard to set them on fire. It was actually a huge effort. "When they did manage to start a fire, it was totally contained within the cube, so it never jumped from cube to cube." All of the previous high-profile big battery fires were using older, different technology than the Hazelwood battery. Mr Quinnell says a key part of the approval and construction process at the Hazelwood battery was engaging local firefighters in the planning process. "The local Fire Rescue Victoria and CFA crews have come to the site to review it and understand it," he says. "Once they saw the safety mechanisms and the reality of the battery, they were really comfortable with it. "I think whenever a developer does a decent job, it really has to bring the community along with it and make sure they're involved in the process." While the Hazelwood battery is only 150MW, there are already plans to expand it. The existing power lines coming into Hazelwood have the capacity to carry 1.6GW, more than 10 times the existing battery output. The next phase is likely to be much quicker and much cheaper to build. Just a decade ago big batteries were seven times more expensive than they are in 2025, with the latest forecasts predicting a further 14 per cent drop in the next year. The Hazelwood expansion will be mirrored Australia-wide, with more than 20GW of big battery projects in the planning pipeline. More than 60 batteries are being built across the country, with a further 83 passing the approval process and 57 awaiting approval. Australia is in the midst of a big battery boom, with hundreds of mega-batteries soon to be dotted across regional areas. But the boom has brought concerns from country residents, farmers, and even volunteer firefighters about the potential fire risks it could bring with it. To find out more, ACM went inside an operational big battery to learn how it worked and how risky it really was. Australia is in the grips of an energy revolution that is transforming many regional areas. Wind and solar farms have been the most obvious part of that change, but batteries are the next crucial piece: a power source when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine. There are 30 big batteries operating across the country - seven in Victoria, six each in NSW, Queensland and SA, and eight in WA. These 30 batteries can store 3 gigawatts (GW) of power. But forecasts by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) show Australia will need at least 22GW by 2030 and 49GW by 2050. That's a lot more batteries, and most of them will be built in regional areas. Ballarat, Warrnambool, Albury-Wodonga and Newcastle will all have a handful of batteries around them in the next five years, but nearly every regional town will have at least one nearby. ACM travelled to Gippsland in south-east Victoria to visit a big battery built on the site of the former Hazelwood coal-fired power station. Hazelwood was Australia's dirtiest power plant when it was decommissioned in 2017. Its owners - the French energy company Engie - decided to replace the power station with a battery, to make use of the huge power lines that once plugged into the plant. Compared to the towering chimneys of the coal plant, Hazelwood's big battery is pretty modest. It resembles a large gravel car park, but instead of cars, it is dotted with dozens of white metal cubes arranged in rows of six. Each cube contains 14 batteries about the same size as you would find in a small electric vehicle. The battery is just 18 months old, coming online in December 2023 at a cost of somewhere near $150 million. At 150 megawatts (MW), it is equivalent to 30,000 rooftop solar systems generating for an hour. The whole site emits a low roar - the sound of hundreds of industrial fans cooling the battery units. Batteries have an unfortunate association with fire in the public imagination, driven largely by regular videos of electric scooters, e-bikes and electric cars catching on fire. Engie media manager Dylan Quinell says there is a wide spectrum of fire safety protection depending on the type of battery use. "At the bottom, in terms of regulation, you'd have things like electric scooters," Mr Quinell says. "EVs have much better fail-safes and protections, but then with a BESS it's much higher again." But big batteries have caught on fire in the past. The Victorian government's Tesla battery outside Geelong caught fire during testing in July 2021. The battery had been offline at the time of the fire, meaning its monitoring and prevention measures were off. Another Tesla battery near Rockhampton in Queensland also caught fire in September 2023, and one of the world's largest batteries caught fire in California in January 2025. It has spurred concerns in some regional communities about the bushfire risk big batteries could pose. An ABC report in May 2025 revealed CFA volunteers in Dederang in northern Victoria were opposed to a proposed big battery near the town. CFA member Doug Connors said volunteers weren't equipped to fight battery fires. "As a brigade, we're equipped and trained to fight grass and scrub fires," Mr Connors said. The coordinator of Hazelwood's big battery, Jonathan Vila, says he can understand the concerns, but the Hazelwood site was extremely safe. "The batteries here are made from lithium iron phosphate, which is less volatile than previous battery technologies," Mr Vila says. "Each battery cube is fan and liquid cooled and has a system that sends an alert if there's any problem. Mr Vila says each cube can isolate from the rest of the big battery system instantaneously, and there's a temperature trigger that fills the cube with chemical firefighting foam if it gets too hot. "The US manufacturer, Fluence, has done extensive testing, trying really hard to set them on fire. It was actually a huge effort. "When they did manage to start a fire, it was totally contained within the cube, so it never jumped from cube to cube." All of the previous high-profile big battery fires were using older, different technology than the Hazelwood battery. Mr Quinnell says a key part of the approval and construction process at the Hazelwood battery was engaging local firefighters in the planning process. "The local Fire Rescue Victoria and CFA crews have come to the site to review it and understand it," he says. "Once they saw the safety mechanisms and the reality of the battery, they were really comfortable with it. "I think whenever a developer does a decent job, it really has to bring the community along with it and make sure they're involved in the process." While the Hazelwood battery is only 150MW, there are already plans to expand it. The existing power lines coming into Hazelwood have the capacity to carry 1.6GW, more than 10 times the existing battery output. The next phase is likely to be much quicker and much cheaper to build. Just a decade ago big batteries were seven times more expensive than they are in 2025, with the latest forecasts predicting a further 14 per cent drop in the next year. The Hazelwood expansion will be mirrored Australia-wide, with more than 20GW of big battery projects in the planning pipeline. More than 60 batteries are being built across the country, with a further 83 passing the approval process and 57 awaiting approval. Australia is in the midst of a big battery boom, with hundreds of mega-batteries soon to be dotted across regional areas. But the boom has brought concerns from country residents, farmers, and even volunteer firefighters about the potential fire risks it could bring with it. To find out more, ACM went inside an operational big battery to learn how it worked and how risky it really was. Australia is in the grips of an energy revolution that is transforming many regional areas. Wind and solar farms have been the most obvious part of that change, but batteries are the next crucial piece: a power source when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine. There are 30 big batteries operating across the country - seven in Victoria, six each in NSW, Queensland and SA, and eight in WA. These 30 batteries can store 3 gigawatts (GW) of power. But forecasts by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) show Australia will need at least 22GW by 2030 and 49GW by 2050. That's a lot more batteries, and most of them will be built in regional areas. Ballarat, Warrnambool, Albury-Wodonga and Newcastle will all have a handful of batteries around them in the next five years, but nearly every regional town will have at least one nearby. ACM travelled to Gippsland in south-east Victoria to visit a big battery built on the site of the former Hazelwood coal-fired power station. Hazelwood was Australia's dirtiest power plant when it was decommissioned in 2017. Its owners - the French energy company Engie - decided to replace the power station with a battery, to make use of the huge power lines that once plugged into the plant. Compared to the towering chimneys of the coal plant, Hazelwood's big battery is pretty modest. It resembles a large gravel car park, but instead of cars, it is dotted with dozens of white metal cubes arranged in rows of six. Each cube contains 14 batteries about the same size as you would find in a small electric vehicle. The battery is just 18 months old, coming online in December 2023 at a cost of somewhere near $150 million. At 150 megawatts (MW), it is equivalent to 30,000 rooftop solar systems generating for an hour. The whole site emits a low roar - the sound of hundreds of industrial fans cooling the battery units. Batteries have an unfortunate association with fire in the public imagination, driven largely by regular videos of electric scooters, e-bikes and electric cars catching on fire. Engie media manager Dylan Quinell says there is a wide spectrum of fire safety protection depending on the type of battery use. "At the bottom, in terms of regulation, you'd have things like electric scooters," Mr Quinell says. "EVs have much better fail-safes and protections, but then with a BESS it's much higher again." But big batteries have caught on fire in the past. The Victorian government's Tesla battery outside Geelong caught fire during testing in July 2021. The battery had been offline at the time of the fire, meaning its monitoring and prevention measures were off. Another Tesla battery near Rockhampton in Queensland also caught fire in September 2023, and one of the world's largest batteries caught fire in California in January 2025. It has spurred concerns in some regional communities about the bushfire risk big batteries could pose. An ABC report in May 2025 revealed CFA volunteers in Dederang in northern Victoria were opposed to a proposed big battery near the town. CFA member Doug Connors said volunteers weren't equipped to fight battery fires. "As a brigade, we're equipped and trained to fight grass and scrub fires," Mr Connors said. The coordinator of Hazelwood's big battery, Jonathan Vila, says he can understand the concerns, but the Hazelwood site was extremely safe. "The batteries here are made from lithium iron phosphate, which is less volatile than previous battery technologies," Mr Vila says. "Each battery cube is fan and liquid cooled and has a system that sends an alert if there's any problem. Mr Vila says each cube can isolate from the rest of the big battery system instantaneously, and there's a temperature trigger that fills the cube with chemical firefighting foam if it gets too hot. "The US manufacturer, Fluence, has done extensive testing, trying really hard to set them on fire. It was actually a huge effort. "When they did manage to start a fire, it was totally contained within the cube, so it never jumped from cube to cube." All of the previous high-profile big battery fires were using older, different technology than the Hazelwood battery. Mr Quinnell says a key part of the approval and construction process at the Hazelwood battery was engaging local firefighters in the planning process. "The local Fire Rescue Victoria and CFA crews have come to the site to review it and understand it," he says. "Once they saw the safety mechanisms and the reality of the battery, they were really comfortable with it. "I think whenever a developer does a decent job, it really has to bring the community along with it and make sure they're involved in the process." While the Hazelwood battery is only 150MW, there are already plans to expand it. The existing power lines coming into Hazelwood have the capacity to carry 1.6GW, more than 10 times the existing battery output. The next phase is likely to be much quicker and much cheaper to build. Just a decade ago big batteries were seven times more expensive than they are in 2025, with the latest forecasts predicting a further 14 per cent drop in the next year. The Hazelwood expansion will be mirrored Australia-wide, with more than 20GW of big battery projects in the planning pipeline. More than 60 batteries are being built across the country, with a further 83 passing the approval process and 57 awaiting approval. Australia is in the midst of a big battery boom, with hundreds of mega-batteries soon to be dotted across regional areas. But the boom has brought concerns from country residents, farmers, and even volunteer firefighters about the potential fire risks it could bring with it. To find out more, ACM went inside an operational big battery to learn how it worked and how risky it really was. Australia is in the grips of an energy revolution that is transforming many regional areas. Wind and solar farms have been the most obvious part of that change, but batteries are the next crucial piece: a power source when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine. There are 30 big batteries operating across the country - seven in Victoria, six each in NSW, Queensland and SA, and eight in WA. These 30 batteries can store 3 gigawatts (GW) of power. But forecasts by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) show Australia will need at least 22GW by 2030 and 49GW by 2050. That's a lot more batteries, and most of them will be built in regional areas. Ballarat, Warrnambool, Albury-Wodonga and Newcastle will all have a handful of batteries around them in the next five years, but nearly every regional town will have at least one nearby. ACM travelled to Gippsland in south-east Victoria to visit a big battery built on the site of the former Hazelwood coal-fired power station. Hazelwood was Australia's dirtiest power plant when it was decommissioned in 2017. Its owners - the French energy company Engie - decided to replace the power station with a battery, to make use of the huge power lines that once plugged into the plant. Compared to the towering chimneys of the coal plant, Hazelwood's big battery is pretty modest. It resembles a large gravel car park, but instead of cars, it is dotted with dozens of white metal cubes arranged in rows of six. Each cube contains 14 batteries about the same size as you would find in a small electric vehicle. The battery is just 18 months old, coming online in December 2023 at a cost of somewhere near $150 million. At 150 megawatts (MW), it is equivalent to 30,000 rooftop solar systems generating for an hour. The whole site emits a low roar - the sound of hundreds of industrial fans cooling the battery units. Batteries have an unfortunate association with fire in the public imagination, driven largely by regular videos of electric scooters, e-bikes and electric cars catching on fire. Engie media manager Dylan Quinell says there is a wide spectrum of fire safety protection depending on the type of battery use. "At the bottom, in terms of regulation, you'd have things like electric scooters," Mr Quinell says. "EVs have much better fail-safes and protections, but then with a BESS it's much higher again." But big batteries have caught on fire in the past. The Victorian government's Tesla battery outside Geelong caught fire during testing in July 2021. The battery had been offline at the time of the fire, meaning its monitoring and prevention measures were off. Another Tesla battery near Rockhampton in Queensland also caught fire in September 2023, and one of the world's largest batteries caught fire in California in January 2025. It has spurred concerns in some regional communities about the bushfire risk big batteries could pose. An ABC report in May 2025 revealed CFA volunteers in Dederang in northern Victoria were opposed to a proposed big battery near the town. CFA member Doug Connors said volunteers weren't equipped to fight battery fires. "As a brigade, we're equipped and trained to fight grass and scrub fires," Mr Connors said. The coordinator of Hazelwood's big battery, Jonathan Vila, says he can understand the concerns, but the Hazelwood site was extremely safe. "The batteries here are made from lithium iron phosphate, which is less volatile than previous battery technologies," Mr Vila says. "Each battery cube is fan and liquid cooled and has a system that sends an alert if there's any problem. Mr Vila says each cube can isolate from the rest of the big battery system instantaneously, and there's a temperature trigger that fills the cube with chemical firefighting foam if it gets too hot. "The US manufacturer, Fluence, has done extensive testing, trying really hard to set them on fire. It was actually a huge effort. "When they did manage to start a fire, it was totally contained within the cube, so it never jumped from cube to cube." All of the previous high-profile big battery fires were using older, different technology than the Hazelwood battery. Mr Quinnell says a key part of the approval and construction process at the Hazelwood battery was engaging local firefighters in the planning process. "The local Fire Rescue Victoria and CFA crews have come to the site to review it and understand it," he says. "Once they saw the safety mechanisms and the reality of the battery, they were really comfortable with it. "I think whenever a developer does a decent job, it really has to bring the community along with it and make sure they're involved in the process." While the Hazelwood battery is only 150MW, there are already plans to expand it. The existing power lines coming into Hazelwood have the capacity to carry 1.6GW, more than 10 times the existing battery output. The next phase is likely to be much quicker and much cheaper to build. Just a decade ago big batteries were seven times more expensive than they are in 2025, with the latest forecasts predicting a further 14 per cent drop in the next year. The Hazelwood expansion will be mirrored Australia-wide, with more than 20GW of big battery projects in the planning pipeline. More than 60 batteries are being built across the country, with a further 83 passing the approval process and 57 awaiting approval.
The Advertiser
an hour ago
- The Advertiser
Legal top guns target national working with kids scheme
Current working with children check laws are "hopeless", the prime minister concedes, as Australia's top legal advisors meet to consider a national scheme. Federal Attorney-General Michelle Rowland is meeting with state and territory counterparts in Sydney on Friday to discuss setting up a national system for working with children checks. Calls for a unified system have been growing following multiple reports of abuse in childcare centres. In one instance, a Victorian childcare worker was still allowed to retain his working with children check and work in the industry despite a major provider substantiating grooming allegations. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the reports were shocking and indicated more needed to be done to fix working with children checks. "It's hopeless, and we need to do better, quite clearly, and these revelations are a wake-up call for state and territory governments in terms of the regulations," he told ABC Radio on Friday. "The reports that we've seen recently have shocked parents and every parent's worst nightmare. That's why we are taking action at the national level." Recommendations for a national working with children check scheme were made in the findings of the 2017 royal commission into child sexual abuse. Ms Rowland conceded the reform had not happened quickly enough. "All representatives of states and territories are united in the goal of making this system better and making it safer for children, which should be our top priority," she told ABC Radio. "I acknowledged this has taken too long, but I wish to reassure Australians that ... this is top of the agenda. "What this will mean is that someone who is banned in one state or territory is banned in all states and territories." Ms Rowland said a lack of a national scheme for working with children checks put young people at risk. The attorney-general said she was hopeful a national scheme would be in place within 12 months. It comes as a NSW parliamentary inquiry on Thursday was told childcare centres were not checking whether staff were allowed to work with children before they were hired. The inquiry was also told banned worker were able to work in the industry for years without oversight. Liberal senator Jane Hume said a national scheme should have been implemented with "more urgency" when the coalition were last in government. "This is the right approach, to get a nationally uniform approach to working with children checks," she told Seven's Sunrise program. Laws passed by the federal parliament in July will strip funding from childcare centres not meeting compliance. Education ministers will also meet next week to consider further child safety laws for childcare centres. Among the measures being considered are use of CCTV in centres, as well as mandatory child safety training. Current working with children check laws are "hopeless", the prime minister concedes, as Australia's top legal advisors meet to consider a national scheme. Federal Attorney-General Michelle Rowland is meeting with state and territory counterparts in Sydney on Friday to discuss setting up a national system for working with children checks. Calls for a unified system have been growing following multiple reports of abuse in childcare centres. In one instance, a Victorian childcare worker was still allowed to retain his working with children check and work in the industry despite a major provider substantiating grooming allegations. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the reports were shocking and indicated more needed to be done to fix working with children checks. "It's hopeless, and we need to do better, quite clearly, and these revelations are a wake-up call for state and territory governments in terms of the regulations," he told ABC Radio on Friday. "The reports that we've seen recently have shocked parents and every parent's worst nightmare. That's why we are taking action at the national level." Recommendations for a national working with children check scheme were made in the findings of the 2017 royal commission into child sexual abuse. Ms Rowland conceded the reform had not happened quickly enough. "All representatives of states and territories are united in the goal of making this system better and making it safer for children, which should be our top priority," she told ABC Radio. "I acknowledged this has taken too long, but I wish to reassure Australians that ... this is top of the agenda. "What this will mean is that someone who is banned in one state or territory is banned in all states and territories." Ms Rowland said a lack of a national scheme for working with children checks put young people at risk. The attorney-general said she was hopeful a national scheme would be in place within 12 months. It comes as a NSW parliamentary inquiry on Thursday was told childcare centres were not checking whether staff were allowed to work with children before they were hired. The inquiry was also told banned worker were able to work in the industry for years without oversight. Liberal senator Jane Hume said a national scheme should have been implemented with "more urgency" when the coalition were last in government. "This is the right approach, to get a nationally uniform approach to working with children checks," she told Seven's Sunrise program. Laws passed by the federal parliament in July will strip funding from childcare centres not meeting compliance. Education ministers will also meet next week to consider further child safety laws for childcare centres. Among the measures being considered are use of CCTV in centres, as well as mandatory child safety training. Current working with children check laws are "hopeless", the prime minister concedes, as Australia's top legal advisors meet to consider a national scheme. Federal Attorney-General Michelle Rowland is meeting with state and territory counterparts in Sydney on Friday to discuss setting up a national system for working with children checks. Calls for a unified system have been growing following multiple reports of abuse in childcare centres. In one instance, a Victorian childcare worker was still allowed to retain his working with children check and work in the industry despite a major provider substantiating grooming allegations. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the reports were shocking and indicated more needed to be done to fix working with children checks. "It's hopeless, and we need to do better, quite clearly, and these revelations are a wake-up call for state and territory governments in terms of the regulations," he told ABC Radio on Friday. "The reports that we've seen recently have shocked parents and every parent's worst nightmare. That's why we are taking action at the national level." Recommendations for a national working with children check scheme were made in the findings of the 2017 royal commission into child sexual abuse. Ms Rowland conceded the reform had not happened quickly enough. "All representatives of states and territories are united in the goal of making this system better and making it safer for children, which should be our top priority," she told ABC Radio. "I acknowledged this has taken too long, but I wish to reassure Australians that ... this is top of the agenda. "What this will mean is that someone who is banned in one state or territory is banned in all states and territories." Ms Rowland said a lack of a national scheme for working with children checks put young people at risk. The attorney-general said she was hopeful a national scheme would be in place within 12 months. It comes as a NSW parliamentary inquiry on Thursday was told childcare centres were not checking whether staff were allowed to work with children before they were hired. The inquiry was also told banned worker were able to work in the industry for years without oversight. Liberal senator Jane Hume said a national scheme should have been implemented with "more urgency" when the coalition were last in government. "This is the right approach, to get a nationally uniform approach to working with children checks," she told Seven's Sunrise program. Laws passed by the federal parliament in July will strip funding from childcare centres not meeting compliance. Education ministers will also meet next week to consider further child safety laws for childcare centres. Among the measures being considered are use of CCTV in centres, as well as mandatory child safety training. Current working with children check laws are "hopeless", the prime minister concedes, as Australia's top legal advisors meet to consider a national scheme. Federal Attorney-General Michelle Rowland is meeting with state and territory counterparts in Sydney on Friday to discuss setting up a national system for working with children checks. Calls for a unified system have been growing following multiple reports of abuse in childcare centres. In one instance, a Victorian childcare worker was still allowed to retain his working with children check and work in the industry despite a major provider substantiating grooming allegations. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the reports were shocking and indicated more needed to be done to fix working with children checks. "It's hopeless, and we need to do better, quite clearly, and these revelations are a wake-up call for state and territory governments in terms of the regulations," he told ABC Radio on Friday. "The reports that we've seen recently have shocked parents and every parent's worst nightmare. That's why we are taking action at the national level." Recommendations for a national working with children check scheme were made in the findings of the 2017 royal commission into child sexual abuse. Ms Rowland conceded the reform had not happened quickly enough. "All representatives of states and territories are united in the goal of making this system better and making it safer for children, which should be our top priority," she told ABC Radio. "I acknowledged this has taken too long, but I wish to reassure Australians that ... this is top of the agenda. "What this will mean is that someone who is banned in one state or territory is banned in all states and territories." Ms Rowland said a lack of a national scheme for working with children checks put young people at risk. The attorney-general said she was hopeful a national scheme would be in place within 12 months. It comes as a NSW parliamentary inquiry on Thursday was told childcare centres were not checking whether staff were allowed to work with children before they were hired. The inquiry was also told banned worker were able to work in the industry for years without oversight. Liberal senator Jane Hume said a national scheme should have been implemented with "more urgency" when the coalition were last in government. "This is the right approach, to get a nationally uniform approach to working with children checks," she told Seven's Sunrise program. Laws passed by the federal parliament in July will strip funding from childcare centres not meeting compliance. Education ministers will also meet next week to consider further child safety laws for childcare centres. Among the measures being considered are use of CCTV in centres, as well as mandatory child safety training.
