Queensland government announces new mandatory safety training for childcare workers

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Queensland government has announced it will introduce mandatory safety training for all childcare workers in a bid to weed out potential predators. The state's education minister says he also wants a national register to track childcare employees across the country.

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00:00New training for every childcare worker every year.

00:06As the sector changes and as predators change their behaviours,

00:11it's important for the staff to be trained regularly.

00:15It is so important for early childhood educators to receive adequate training

00:20to be able to ensure the safety of our children for years to come.

00:23It's aimed at making childcare centres safer and identifying potential predators.

00:29I've instructed my department to work as quickly as they can to make sure we bring that in.

00:34Parents have mixed feelings.

00:36It's a good start. I don't think it's the answer to the problem.

00:41I don't know what the answer would be because it's a very serious and complicated sort of issue.

00:47Of course, more training and more resources thrown in it, the better.

00:51The government announced the reforms after a meeting with industry stakeholders.

00:56As for making CCTV mandatory in childcare centres...

01:00We're not ruling anything in or out.

01:02But he added...

01:03Whether it's CCTV or other issues that people want to raise,

01:06we want to make sure that we can do it appropriately and not end up with unintended consequences.

01:11The Minister also wants a register of childcare workers to track them nationwide,

01:16something the federal government says it's already working on.

01:21So let's see what people want to do,

01:23we try to have only to take care of us.

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