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Melbourne childcare worker charged with more than 70 child abuse offences
ABC NEWS (Australia)
Follow
7/1/2025
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.
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00:00
Over time, the requirements for working with children check have expanded significantly.
00:06
So at this time in Victoria, anybody in any child-related employment where they have direct
00:12
contact with a person under the age of 18 must have a working with children check.
00:19
And what exactly does it mean to have a working with children's check?
00:23
How much scrutiny do you go through to be able to obtain one?
00:28
To be honest, the bar is pretty low to pass a working with children check.
00:34
And so anybody with a conviction for a serious violent or sexual or drug-related offence will
00:42
be automatically excluded from working with children.
00:46
There's some charges or criminal prosecutions where there's a presumptive rejection of that
00:51
person, but they can debate whether or not they should be banned from working with children
01:00
if it's a lower offence.
01:02
And the authorities can also consider police intelligence, child protection information to
01:09
make a discretionary assessment of whether somebody is suitable.
01:13
But the truth is that the majority of people with a sexual interest in children will pass
01:18
a working with children check because we don't detect most people who abuse children.
01:23
Is this system nationwide or does it differ from state to state?
01:29
It differs from state to state.
01:31
There has been efforts since 2018 to coordinate the working with children checks across the country.
01:39
There are some mechanisms to share information between states and territories.
01:45
What that means is that if an individual fails a working with children check in one jurisdiction,
01:50
it's pretty unlikely that they can go to another jurisdiction and pass a working with children check.
01:55
The fact that they've failed one in one state or territory means they're very likely,
01:59
almost certainly going to fail one in another.
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