Melbourne childcare worker charged with more than 70 child abuse offences

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Advocates have labelled the Victoria’s working with children checks inadequate. This comes after a childcare worker was charged with more than 70 offences of sexually abusing children.

Transcript

00:00Over time, the requirements for working with children check have expanded significantly.

00:06So at this time in Victoria, anybody in any child-related employment where they have direct

00:12contact with a person under the age of 18 must have a working with children check.

00:19And what exactly does it mean to have a working with children's check?

00:23How much scrutiny do you go through to be able to obtain one?

00:28To be honest, the bar is pretty low to pass a working with children check.

00:34And so anybody with a conviction for a serious violent or sexual or drug-related offence will

00:42be automatically excluded from working with children.

00:46There's some charges or criminal prosecutions where there's a presumptive rejection of that

00:51person, but they can debate whether or not they should be banned from working with children

01:00if it's a lower offence.

01:02And the authorities can also consider police intelligence, child protection information to

01:09make a discretionary assessment of whether somebody is suitable.

01:13But the truth is that the majority of people with a sexual interest in children will pass

01:18a working with children check because we don't detect most people who abuse children.

01:23Is this system nationwide or does it differ from state to state?

01:29It differs from state to state.

01:31There has been efforts since 2018 to coordinate the working with children checks across the country.

01:39There are some mechanisms to share information between states and territories.

01:45What that means is that if an individual fails a working with children check in one jurisdiction,

01:50it's pretty unlikely that they can go to another jurisdiction and pass a working with children check.

01:55The fact that they've failed one in one state or territory means they're very likely,

01:59almost certainly going to fail one in another.

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