‘Critical' children's commissioner role ‘needs to be filled with urgency'
Deputy Premier and Education Minister Ben Carroll also said the state's rapid review into the childcare sector would look into the government's failure to heed the former commissioner's warnings on child sexual abuse over several years.
This masthead revealed on Wednesday that Victoria's former commissioner for children and young people, Liana Buchanan, had long predicted in her warnings to the government that the continued underfunding of a vital oversight scheme administered by the Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP) would result in the abuse of children.
Substantiated allegations the man at the centre of Melbourne's childcare crisis, Joshua Brown, had acted violently toward children in his care were reported to the Reportable Conduct Scheme for review but were not escalated to a suspension of his working with children check.
Brown now stands accused of abusing eight preschoolers at a Point Cook childcare centre in 2022 and 2023, with more allegations being investigated in a case that has prompted authorities to call for thousands of children to be tested for sexually transmitted infections.
Responding on Wednesday morning to revelations about Buchanan's warnings, Carroll said the rapid review, led by former South Australian premier Jay Weatherill, will 'look at everything'.
'My understanding is that they will look at everything,' Carroll said.
'Lizzie Blandthorn, the minister for children, the premier, have all said we're going to implement all the recommendations, and if it does include changes to the system around families, children, the reportable conduct scheme, for example, yes, certainly we'll accept those recommendations and make those changes.'
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