WA to introduce ‘banned in one, banned in all’ reforms to Working With Children Checks this week

The Cook Government will this week move to overhaul Working With Children checks, amid claims WA is lagging on efforts to create a nationally consistent, real-time checking system for childcare workers across all jurisdictions.. The changes were recommended in the wake of a horror case of abuse in child care. WA Child Protection Minister Jessica Stojkovski is expected to introduce ‘banned in one, banned in all’ amendments to the State Act in Parliament on Wednesday. All States and Territories pledged to ensure anyone denied a WWC check in one jurisdiction can’t hold one in another, after it was revealed a Victorian child care worker charged with 70 offences worked at up to 20 centres. “This approach means anyone found to present an unacceptable risk to children will be barred from undertaking child-related work in any State or Territory in Australia. Banned in one, banned in all,” Ms Stojkovski said. She said the proposed Bill would also establish a new offence to target any employer of someone working with children, who decided to ignore negative interstate WWC notices raised against that employee. The national agreement was made at the Standing Council of Attorneys-General on November 14. Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson was told progress was underway on the national reform roll-out, when she raised a question about it at Monday Senate Estimates hearing. “Jurisdictions agreed to have legislation introduced by the end of this year,” deputy secretary Tamsyn Harvey said. “Most jurisdictions have that legislation either in place or introduced. Western Australia and the ACT are the only two who haven’t yet. The Northern Territory introduced legislation last week.” The Attorney-General’s departmental secretary Katherine Jones said both WA and ACT had been “engaging positively” with the reforms. “We have not given up hope or expectation that Western Australian and the ACT will introduce (legalisation) this year,” Ms Jones said. “They still have sitting days in their parliamentary schedule, our engagement with them has been positive and they are still seeking to meet that commitment.” Ms Harvey said the eventual goal, after six key priorities were achieved, was to have national consistent, real-time checking across all jurisdictions. In an interview with ABC radio on Monday, Early Childhood Education Minister Jess Walsh welcomed the reforms, but appeared to get tied up on what legislation was already in place. When asked if there was a national consistent approach to the checks already, Ms Walsh indicated there was and repeatedly doubled down when her comment was questioned. It came after she also refused to say if independent inquiry into childcare standards would be established. The Productivity Commission recommended an inquiry be established after it completed a review of the sector. “We can guarantee we are strengthening the sector and parents should be confident about that,” Ms Walsh said. “Every child deserves to be safe, and parents deserve to know that their children are safe. “That is why we have delivered and are implementing what is the biggest package of reforms to this system in the 15 years of its operation.” Ms Walsh also said the final 5 per cent of the Federal Government’s 15 per cent pay rise package for early education and childcare workers had come into effect on Monday. “We’re strengthening the workforce. We’re strengthening the rules in centres and we’re strengthening the regulation,” she said. “This pay rise is a really important part of it, because when parents go to centres they want to see the same faces. “They want to know the educator who is caring for and educating their children. And that is exactly what this pay rise will deliver.”