Victoria's finances doing just fine in the echo chamber
Strangely, it's a sense of optimism about the state of Victoria's finances previously only espoused in the establishment by Greg Jericho, chief economist and Tweeter-in-chief at The Australian Institute.
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Herald Sun
7 hours ago
- Herald Sun
Jacinta Allan pressured to close Working With Children Check loopholes
Don't miss out on the headlines from Victoria. Followed categories will be added to My News. The government's childcare safety review is due in full later today but will not be released publicly despite assurances all recommendations will be adopted and implemented. But Jacinta Allan has repeatedly said the government will need time to consider the review before making it public. Leader of the Opposition in the upper house, David Davis, on Thursday night called for parliament to be recalled next week to plug gaping hopes in the Working With Children Check system. The Opposition introduced new legislation through the upper house this week to overhaul the embattled system, after the Premier voted against it in the lower house. Major flaws in the Working With Children regime have been exposed following the arrest and charge of childcare worker Joshua Brown with dozens of child sex crimes. They include a loophole that allows people under investigation for child sex crimes to continue to hold their Working With Children checks. In 2022 the Victorian Ombudsman handed down a damning report which warned of 'serious flaws' in the Working With Children system. In her report former Ombudsman Deborah Glass said the powers of Victoria's screening authority were among the most limited in Australia. Mr Davis said the legislation could be passed through the upper house immediately, but would need the support of the government in the lower house to pass parliament. He wrote to upper house president Shaun Leane on Thursday demanding parliament be recalled next week. 'What has become clear late today is that the Victorian State Government has not closed the loopholes and it is now evident that individuals who continue to pose a risk to children can still hold an active Working With Children Check, and legally engage in working with children, while the process for revoking their clearance is underway,' he said. 'We understand the government tomorrow (Friday) will receive their 'Rapid Review' into the childcare safety system but in one sense this is irrelevant because it is clear the significant loophole must be closed and the Bill we introduced to parliament on Wednesday will close that loophole. 'I am conscious it is your decision to make but I advise it is my view the retention of the arrangement where people whose Working With Children Check is in the process of being revoked can continue to work with children due to a loophole in the law is such a circumstance. 'In the Legislative Assembly the relevant Bill was rejected and no second reading was allowed under the Assembly's Standing Orders. 'In this circumstance the recall of the Council offers the only practical way in which a Bill to close this loophole can be advanced urgently. 'I appreciate that this is an unusual request but examining the circumstances I see no other practical way to close these loopholes in the next few days ahead of the proposed sitting of both Chambers in two weeks time.' Greens Early Childhood spokesperson, Anasina Gray-Barberio, called for the government to immediately make public the childcare review. 'Victorian families have waited long enough for transparency,' she said. 'Labor must release the findings of this review in full and as a matter of urgency, no sanitised summaries, and no waiting for the political heat to die down. 'Labor needs to go further than this unambitious review, which deliberately left any scrutiny of the government's own regulator out of scope. 'It's time to confront the failures head on, that means real transparency and accountability and closing every gap that's putting children at risk.'
Sky News AU
10 hours ago
- Sky News AU
‘Failure of leadership': Jacinta Allan accused of putting children ‘at risk' after latest Working With Children Check revelations
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has been accused of putting children at risk after the Labor leader was unable to guarantee a former childcare worker sacked for sexual misconduct would have his Working With Children's Check (WWCC) cancelled. The ABC revealed on Wednesday that a Victorian childcare worker had been blacklisted from the industry in 2020 over accusations of grooming, kissing toddlers, and attempting to organise unsanctioned catch-ups and offer babysitting services. When alerted to the incident, Premier Allan said the process to cancel the man's WWCC was underway. However on Thursday the Victorian Premier was unable to provide a timeline for how long the process would take - or provide a guarantee the man would indeed be stripped of his WWCC. 'What's occurred here is just not acceptable. It demonstrates why the system needs to be strengthened and why we have taken action to strengthen the system and more will be done when we receive the rapid review report,' Ms Allan told reporters. 'In regards to this individual, the advice I had yesterday remains the advice today; that urgent steps are being taken to go through the process of cancelling this particular individual's Working With Children's Check as soon as possible.' Pressed on the timeline for a decision, the Victorian Premier said she was 'just not in a position to comment on individual cases'. The comments prompted a heated response from the Victorian Opposition, with Shadow Attorney General Michael O'Brien and Shadow Education Minister Jess Willson accusing the Premier of placing children at 'unacceptable risk'. 'Premier Jacinta Allan's continued refusal to take decisive action to protect children in childcare and educational settings is a failure of leadership,' the two Shadow Ministers said in a joint statement. 'More than 24 hours on from revelations that an individual dismissed from a childcare centre for grooming and kissing children still has an active Working With Children Check and the Premier still cannot guarantee when this individual's WWCC will be revoked.' The opposition frontbenchers said the loopholes that enabled the situation to occur would have been addressed by a bill introduced in Parliament by the Liberals and Nationals last week. 'Instead of supporting this new legislation, Premier Jacinta Allan blocked these laws and continues to place children at unacceptable risk,' they said. 'The Premier and Victorian Government must put politics aside, work with the Parliament and pass these laws now." The Victorian government is also under pressure to release the findings of its Rapid Child Safety Review as soon as possible. The review was launched after shocking allegations against Victorian childcare Worker Joshua Brown, who worked across 23 childcare centres and has been charged with more than 70 offences, including sexual assault. Premier Allan said on Thursday the report would be released "as soon as possible" but the government needed time to consider the findings. 'There will need to be a period of time for the government to consider and provide its thoughtful, detailed response to the rapid review,'Ms Allan said. 'But I want that response to be as soon as possible – not weeks.'
Sky News AU
13 hours ago
- Sky News AU
Parents hit back at Premier Jacinta Allan after extraordinary attack on concerns about a ‘school to gender clinic pipeline'
A group of parents with kids suffering from gender dysphoria have hit back at Premier Jacinta Allan after the Labor leader launched an extraordinary attack on parents concerned about the teaching of radical gender theory in Victorian schools. The Australian revealed on Thursday that the Victorian Department of Education had quietly updated its Respectful Relationships program to include content that teaches kids as young as five their biological sex may not align with their gender identity. The report included concerns from a spokeswoman from Parents of Adolescents with Gender Distress there was a 'school to gender clinic pipeline' which was pushing kids towards irreversible medical interventions. Premier Allan blasted the reporting during a press conference on Thursday, claiming the Respectful Relationships program was 'all about protecting kids, strengthening resilience of kids and supporting kids to be who they are across our schools'. The Premier then took aim at the parents' concerns, branding them 'disgraceful, nonsense' and claiming 'transgender kids are 15 times more likely to kill themselves'. In a letter responding to the Premier, the Parents of Adolescents with Gender Distress accused Ms Allan of making 'alarmist and irresponsible claims' in relations to suicide which were not supported by data. 'You made the alarming suggestion of a 15 times higher rate of suicide amongst transgender children. We believe this figure comes from survey data and concerned thoughts of suicide rather than completed suicide,' the parents wrote. 'Data shows suicide rates for transgender youth, while elevated, remain extremely low, and as many also suffer from co-occurring conditions (ASD (autism spectrum disorder), eating disorders, anxiety) which have similar levels of risk, a direct correlation can't be made,' the parents wrote. 'Neither affirmation nor medicalisation impacts this suicide risk or suicidal ideation and there is no evidence that programs introducing unevidenced concepts of 'gender identity' are beneficial to the mental health of children or adolescents. The parent group's concerns are supported by findings from a comprehensive independent review into gender dysphoria treatment in the UK found that 'the evidence does not adequately support the claim that gender affirming treatment reduces suicide risk'. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's website also states there is 'no reliable national data on rates of suicide and self-harm among LGBTIQ+ communities in Australia'. In their letter to Ms Allan, Parents of Adolescents with Gender Distress requested the Premier meet with them to hear about their experiences – noting Education Minister Ben Carroll and his departmental secretary had 'refused to engage' with their attempts to organise a meeting for the past year. In its report on Thursday, the Australian revealed new content had been added to the Respectful Relationships program. The content, aimed at kids in their first year of primary school, includes a case study involving a transgender girl named "Stacey" who wants to play on the boys sport team. The curriculum also seeks to educate the five and six-year-old students about the notion of being transgender, by telling them that 'some people feel they did not get a good match for their body parts, and they do not want to be called a boy or a girl, but rather something that is right for them'. Parents of Adolescents with Gender Distress's letter states the group 'believe these programs which invite children to question their sex, and therefore their comfort in their own bodies, based on stereotypes, create unnecessary anxiety and confusion, particularly for gender-nonconforming or neurodiverse children. 'We hope that in the spirit of inclusivity you could meet with us to hear our personal stories.' Speaking to Sky News Australian on Thursday evening, Queensland Psychiatrist Andrew Amos agreed the content in the curriculum could be 'extremely harmful to kids'. Dr Amos said kids start to develop an understanding of sex characteristics at a reasonably young age, but this is mostly at the level of play. 'The way that kids learn is that they play with ideas, they play with clothes, they play with toys. What's happening, though, is in the school and in the clinic, people with a very strong political idea about what should happen with kids are then pushing them into a pipeline that really will follow them for the rest of their lives and do a lot of harm to them,' he said. 'We haven't got any good evidence that it helps kids and we know that it does significant and irreversible harm to them. 'So yeah, I think it's extremely inappropriate to be teaching five-year-olds, this sort of sexualized idea that you can be born into the wrong body.'
