Daily London
The federal government has put forward $37 million for childcare reforms aimed at stopping offenders slipping through the cracks between police checks in different states.
The “banned in one, banned in all” approach involving nationwide, ongoing checks of Working with Children Check (WWCC) holders will be ready to start rolling out from the end of this year.
The child sexual abuse royal commission recommended the measure in 2015 but the stalled push for reform gained extra urgency following a string of high-profile cases involving alleged abuse at childcare centres across the country.
Attorney-General Michelle Rowland will tomorrow announce the five-year funding package towards the National Continuous Checking Capability to provide “near real-time monitoring of changes to criminal history information”.
“Child safety is a top priority for the Albanese government. That’s why we are progressing a coordinated and ambitious reform agenda to achieve meaningful consistency across jurisdictions for when a person is suitable to hold a WWCC and when they should be excluded,” she said in a statement.
“This addresses existing gaps and inconsistencies and will improve protections for children and young people.”
Rowland had previously knocked back the idea of one national database, instead leaving the states and territories to implement the collective change individually.
The government said five states and territories already recognised negative WWCC decisions from interstate and the other three were “on track” to introduce legislation this year.
“Currently, persons seeking to hold an entitlement, or position of trust, are subject to a point-in-time check of their criminal history through a Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check, often referred to as a police check, which is conducted through the ACIC’s National Police Checking Service (NPCS),” ACIC executive director of business and partnerships Jeremy Johnson said, in March.
“The NCCC seeks to provide an additional layer to the process by providing an ongoing, continuous, near real-time monitoring of national changes to an entitlement holder’s criminal history information.
“This means that if an entitlement holder is charged with a relevant offence in any state or territory, this information will be passed to the relevant screening unit for their assessment.”
