Latest news with #workingwithchildren

Fast-tracked spot checks, funds-stripping powers but 'no silver bullet' to childcare woes

SBS Australia

a day ago

Politics
SBS Australia

Fast-tracked spot checks, funds-stripping powers but 'no silver bullet' to childcare woes

Childcare centres failing to meet standards could face random "spot checks" under expanded powers the federal government will move to legislate soon after parliament returns, Education Minister Jason Clare says. The legislation, Clare said, would give his department the power to pull funding from childcare centres "persistently failing" to meet safety and quality standards. "One of the big weapons that the Commonwealth has, probably the biggest, is the funding that we provide to childcare centres ... if they don't get it, they can't operate," he told Sky News on Friday. Centres not meeting minimum standards would also be unable to expand, Clare said, adding the bill would also allow department officials to make unannounced visits to centres where there is suspected fraud. "They won't need a warrant," Clare said. "They won't need the police to come with them when they're investigating fraud in childcare centres." Brown, 26, had a valid working with children check and was not known to police or subject to any complaints before his arrest in May. Every state and territory maintains separate working with children schemes with different rules and requirements. Victoria, Queensland, and NSW have all committed to reviewing or tightening their regimes, and Clare confirmed plans to strengthen the checks will be discussed at a meeting of state and federal attorneys-general in August. He said they would examine how to improve the criminal record check system. "Part of it is about information sharing across borders," Clare said. "Part of it is about making sure that it's updated in near real time." But Clare warned there was "no silver bullet" to solving problems in the sector. "There's a whole bunch of things that we need to do, and this work will never end," he said. "There are always going to be more things that we need to do here because there's always going to be people who are going to try and break through the net to try to do the dastardly things that we've seen other people do." Education Minister Jason Clare said early childhood education ministers would discuss the use of CCTV cameras at centres when they meet next month. Source: AAP / Dominic Lipinski/PA Clare also said that early education ministers would discuss the installation of CCTV cameras at childcare centres when they meet next month, following the announcement by childcare chain Goodstart Early Learning that it would install them across its 653 centres. "One of the things that having a CCTV camera in a childcare centre can do is if there's somebody that's potentially up to no good, they know the camera's there," Clare said. "It means it's less likely that they're going to act, so it's one of the things that we're looking at right now." It comes as a former royal commissioner has criticised governments for dragging their feet on creating a national regime for Working With Children Checks (WWCC). The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse called on the federal government in 2015 to "facilitate a national model" for WWCC. Robert Fitzgerald, one of five members of the royal commission, said the recommendation remained unfulfilled. "My view is that is shameful," the now-age discrimination commissioner told the Australian Associated Press. "Ten years on, that job should have been completed and the fact that it isn't means there are gaps in our child safeguarding regime." Clare said earlier this week the reforms had taken "too bloody long". — With additional reporting by the Australian Associated Press

SBS Australia

a day ago

SBS Australia

Midday News Bulletin 4 July 2025

Calls for changes to working with children checks Qantas to contact millions impacted by cyber hack Three Aussie hopefuls through to round three Wimbledon A former royal commissioner has hit out at governments for failing to act sooner on a national regime for working with children checks. After it was revealed a Melbourne childcare worker was charged with more than 70 sex offences, state and federal ministers have been rushing to fast-track sector reforms. 26-year-old Joshua Dale Brown had a valid 'working with children' clearance when he allegedly abused eight children under the age of two at a Point Cook facility in Melbourne's southwest. In 2015, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse called on the federal government to facilitate a national model for working with children checks. Robert Fitzgerald, one of five members of the royal commission, says the recommendation remained unfulfilled. Federal Labor MP Dan Repacholi told Channel Nine that more must be done. "It's absolutely sickening what's happened down here in Victoria, and as Jason Clare admitted yesterday, there is more that should have been done a little bit quicker, and we're acting on that. We're working heavily with the state government, so both Victoria and New South Wales governments, we support the changes they're putting in, and we'll continue to work with them and make sure that we are putting those kids front and centre to make sure that they're getting the best care they can, and the best education they can as well.' Qantas says next week it will contact the six million customers whose data was hacked into by cyber criminals, informing them of exactly what type of information was collected. After revealing the hack earlier this week, Qantas assured customers the breach did not expose sensitive information such as bank details, passport numbers, or frequent flyer points. The company says the group responsible for the incident remains unclear and they have not received a ransom request. Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson says the airline is working with government authorities to investigate the incident. "I know this data breach is a serious concern. I know the stress that it has created for many, many millions of customers that we've had. And so right up front, I want to say, we take this seriously, and we are going to do everything that we can to communicate transparently to you and also support you through this process." The Federal Emergency Management Minister has announced an additional $45 million has been put in a flood recovery package for western Queensland, with support for New South Wales primary producers. Jointly funded by the state and federal governments, the cash injection is set to support primary producers, tourism operators and small businesses impacted by the flooding. The additional support will offer eligible primary producers grants of up to $75,000 to assist with clean up, repairs, replacing lost or damaged assets, and restocking and replanting. Kristy McBain says recovery will be a long-haul effort. "We want to make sure that the three levels of government are working together seamlessly to help the community to recover from what's been a devastating event. But this has been the cumulative and compounding impact of a number of rain and flooding events in the mid north coast and the Hunter region. We recognize that primary producers in particular have been doing it tough, and that they will need that additional support to replace, plant and equipment to work on fencing and to replace livestock." New South Wales Police have arrested a 63-year-old woman at Sydney Airport after she allegedly defrauded a 77-year-old woman using a 'blessing scam'. Th elderly Chinese woman is the latest victim of a scam targeting people of Asian background, with more than 80 incidents reported since 2023 and over $3 million stolen. The scam involves convincing people their wealth needs to blessed and encouraging them to hand over large sums of money and valuables. The items are then swapped for items of no value and the victim is told not to open the bag for an extended period of time. A police strike force has been running since April, investigating alleged blessing scams across Sydney since 2023. Consumer regulator the ACCC, is warning consumers about online 'ghost stores' - which claim to be small, local operators with high quality products - when they're actually based overseas, selling products from third-party suppliers. The regulator says they typically include the name of an Australian town or suburb in their brand or website address, claim to be closing, adding a sense of urgency, and use targeted paid advertising on social media platforms. They can also use A-I generated images, have no or limited contact details, a return address different to the shipping one, and may have recently created social media pages. ACCC Deputy chair Catriona Lowe says they're hoping to work with platforms where ads are appearing. "So, one of the things that we've done is written to Meta and we've asked them to come back to us and talk to us to tell us what they're doing to make sure these ads on their platform can be picked up and stamped out, similarly, many of these stores are using Shopify and we've similarly written to Shopify." To tennis now, Alex de Minaur and Daria Kasatkina, Australia's biggest Wimbledon hopes, have fought their way into the third round of Wimbledon. In perfect sunny conditions, Alex de Minaur brushed off a poor first set against French qualifier Arthur Cazaux, before showing some signs of his best tennis in a 4-6 6-2 6-4 6-0 victory. Then, after his fellow Sydneysider Aleksandar Vukic was defeated by world Number 1 Jannik Sinner, the other national Number 1, Kasatkina, defeated old Romanian rival Irina-Camelia Begu. So, there'll be at least three Australians in the last 32, with Jordan Thompson having made it into the third round on Wednesday.

NSW to ban people from appealing if working with children check is denied

ABC News

3 days ago

Politics
ABC News

NSW to ban people from appealing if working with children check is denied

New South Wales will move to ban people from appealing the denial of a working with children check, after media reports highlighting cases where sex offenders and other criminals had been granted the checks on appeal. The cases included instances where the NSW Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal (NCAT) had upheld appeals for a man who had been convicted of a sex act involving a woman on a train 47 years earlier and a teacher who was charged but never convicted of sexually abusing a foster child. Premier Chris Minns said he was "very distressed" at the reports. "I think it makes a mockery of the working with children check and is a loophole that cannot exist," he said. A working with children check is compulsory for anyone who undertakes any paid or unpaid work involving children in NSW. People must apply through Service NSW for the check, which involves a national police check of their criminal record and a review of reportable workplace misconduct. They are then either cleared to work with children or not, depending on the result. But many of those who are rejected are eligible to appeal through the NCAT. In some cases applicants had been initially knocked back for a working with children check on the basis of unproven allegations, but in others the NCAT weighed issues including the passage of time since an offence and psychological evaluations showing the applicant was a low risk to children. Mr Minns said he would bring legislation to end the appeals process. "When it comes to the safety of children, it's a one-strike policy; we can't have any ambiguity here," he said. "My understanding is we will have to introduce a bill to change the law to stop this appeal mechanism from taking place, but that's exactly what we are going to do." The Office of the Children's Guardian is currently carrying out a review of the laws around working with children.

10 years on from child sexual abuse RC, nothing has changed