Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. What progress has the Albanese Labor government made on implementing reforms to keep our children safe in early education and care? What other approaches to child care is the government being asked to consider?

Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the cheerful member for Chisholm for her question. I don't think anyone needs a reminder of the sickening allegations of abuse that we saw in centres last year. They shocked the whole country. I said at the time—I was pretty blunt—that not enough had been done by governments, whether they be state or federal, Labor or Liberal.

Since then, a number of things have happened. Personal mobile phones are now banned in centres across the country. A trial of closed circuit television cameras is now rolling out across the country as well, and the Federal Police are involved in this trial. Sixty-three centres have now been put on notice, using the legislation that we passed through this place last year. That legislation gives us the power to cut off funding to centres if they don't meet safety standards. The deadline for 30 of these centres has now arrived. I can advise the House that 19 of those centres have now suddenly fixed the problems that they had failed to fix for as long as seven years. I think what that shows is that the laws that we passed here last year are working, that the threat of cutting off funding has forced these centres to act. And it's not an idle threat. The centres that have not met the standard will now be contacted by my department and asked to show cause as to why their funding should not be cut off.

Last week, two other big reforms came into force. The first of those is the National Early Childhood Worker Register. The events of last year made it very clear how important a register like this is, so that we know who is working where and we're able to track people from centre to centre and from state to state. That register is now up and running. It's now mandatory to put worker information in it, and centres will now have one month to do that.

The second big reform that's started is mandatory child safety training. That's mandatory for everyone who works in a centre, and for the CEO too and for the board of directors. Of all the things that we do here, it might be this that's the most important because it's the people who care for and educate our kids in centres who are our best assets to help keep our children safe. We've got to give them the skills that they need to identify somebody in their centre who might be up to no good, somebody who might be hiding in plain sight. This training will now happen over the next six months, and centres will be able to close early, at 5 pm, for a couple of days a year to do this training. As part of that, they're going to have to give parents plenty of notice. I know that this is going to be an inconvenience for some families, but we're doing this for a reason. There is nothing more important than keeping our children safe. I want this training done and I want it done properly.