National Children’s Commissioner says allegations of misconduct by childcare workers ‘tip of the iceberg’

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Australia's Children's Commissioner says shocking allegations of misconduct by childcare workers are 'just the tip of the iceberg'. An ABC investigation has revealed that a Victorian worker was able to keep his Working with Children Check, despite being sacked from one centre for grooming toddlers. Victoria's rapid review into early childhood education is due to report its findings tomorrow.

Transcript

00:00Well what we're hearing in the media today about Victoria really is just a

00:09glimpse into what I think is could be called a national child safety and

00:14well-being crisis because it's not just in the childcare sector which of course

00:20itself is massive right across the country but it's also beyond the

00:25childcare sector really into every area where you find vulnerable children and

00:31I'll use as an example the the child protection systems which in every state

00:36and territory are really in a chronic state of crisis and that's been

00:42officially admitted by many ministers in those jurisdictions so these systems and

00:48also the health and education systems that should be picking up problems early

00:53on there they're very fragmented and they're often unable to address the

00:57needs of these children and I think the truth is Ros that child safety and

01:02well-being has not had the priority that other issues have had for example there

01:09are good reasons why we have cabinet ministers for women there are good

01:13reasons why women and women's safety is a priority for national cabinet and we get

01:19women's budget statements every year we have none of these accountability

01:24mechanisms for children and that helps to explain I think why decades of

01:30recommendations from royal commissions and inquiries have not been acted on yet

01:35several investigations are ongoing you've identified systems being

01:39fragmented as part of the problem why aren't agencies talking to each other why

01:44aren't they connected and liaising do you think there's a sense of

01:47protectiveness about each department or is it bureaucracy that's simply getting in

01:52the way I think there's a lot of bureaucracy that gets in the way but when

01:57you look at even what we've heard in the media from the ABC reporting about

02:02there are many different parts in the system that all have a particular slice of

02:08the problem and it really leaves open the opportunity for potential points of

02:14failure multiple points of failure and it does require really good communication

02:19between those sections but the other thing is that and you know without an

02:24overall view of what's going on every every part of the system only sees a slice so

02:32we're not getting the full picture we're not getting the the historical patterns and

02:36we're missing very very important information and learning to be able to

02:41improve the system over time I'm hoping that the review that's reporting

02:45tomorrow from Victoria will really highlight the those points of failure in

02:51the current system so those are the failures how easy will it be to fix the

02:55problems and make sure that agencies do talk to each other that there is a

02:59oversight and that potential predators can't fall through the cracks well I think we

03:05need to streamline and maybe consolidate some of those bits so not have so many

03:10parts but also we need to really look at the how we strengthen the regulator you

03:16know it's it's being revealed that regulation and that that underlying

03:20scaffolding that's meant to be keeping children safe is incredibly weak and and we

03:26need to look at how we're screening and recruiting to ensure that we get the

03:32right people there caring for our children and we heard a little earlier from our reporter Alex

03:37Lewis who's been at the New South Wales parliamentary inquiry today where a senior

03:42police officer has said that some child care centers are reluctant to report abuse over fears for

03:49their reputation fears about their jobs so is there a sense that not everyone is

03:54pulling together on this well I think that really illustrates that we have not had as

04:00our primary goal the safety and well-being of children there are you know

04:06conflicting needs that come into it the running of the business the reputation of

04:10the business and protecting adults and their employment you know we have we have

04:17regulations that you know restrict how much information we can be sharing that could be

04:25useful to protecting children all of that needs to be looked at Ros and I'm really

04:30hoping that the various reviews that are underway now will enable us to get on with

04:35fixing what are very very serious problems in this sector but also beyond the

04:41child care sector and how forceful are you as children's commissioner prepared to be

04:46to ensure that changes are made well you know I don't have the power to fix this

04:54but I what I try and do is raise the issues for example those evidence-based

05:00recommendations from decades ago raised them with governments repeatedly and

05:06asking for that accountability for action but what unless we have a point of

05:11accountability unless we have a cabinet minister for children unless child safety and

05:16well-being actually is a priority at national cabinet it's very limited what

05:21anyone can do to achieve the changes that we need that it will help us all to

05:26feel more confident that we've got the right things in place to protect our

05:31children and particularly the most vulnerable children

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