Working with children checks
Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:17): (1370) My adjournment matter is for the Premier, and the action I seek is for child abuse prevention education to be a mandatory requirement of the working with children check. I understand that the working with children check is the legislative responsibility of the Attorney-General. However, the action I seek relates directly to the first national action plan of the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse 2021–2030. Former Premier Daniel Andrews signed on to this plan, recognising that every child has the right to be protected and safe from sexual abuse. The first national action plan expired at the end of 2024 and will soon be replaced with a second plan. This gives the Victorian government the perfect opportunity to respond to calls from survivors of child sexual abuse and advocate for a nationally harmonised working with children check that includes mandatory child abuse prevention education. These calls have been led by survivors through the Australian Childhood Foundation’s Our Collective Experience project. It is my hope that the Premier will meet with the Australian Childhood Foundation and project lead, survivor Emma Hakansson, to discuss these proposed reforms further. We must listen to survivors’ knowledge about what they know would help keep them safe.
Survivors should not be left asking why it is harder to get a responsible service of alcohol certificate than it is to be approved to work with children. People working with children must be able to understand child sexual abuse, including the tactics of perpetrators, how to promote children’s rights and voices, indicators of abuse, how to talk to children about concerns and how to respond appropriately to disclosures. The damning truth is that in Australia 30 per cent of people over the age of 16 years have endured child sexual abuse. That is almost 4.5 million people who carry that experience with them their whole life, each with their own devastating story. No-one wants to think it could happen to them or someone they know, but it does. Until we act on the calls of survivors, we are failing these children and allowing this abuse to continue. So I ask: will the Premier commit to calling for a nationally harmonised working with children check that includes mandatory child abuse prevention education as part of the second national action plan?