Hansard debates

Sonya KILKENNY (Carrum – Attorney-General, Minister for Planning) (12:09): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I ask that my second-reading speech be incorporated into Hansard.

Incorporated speech as follows:

The safety and wellbeing of our children is of paramount concern to the Victorian Government. The recent allegations of child abuse that have come to light demonstrate an urgent need to ensure that the systems in place to protect children in Victoria are robust and effective.

Today the government is introducing the Worker Screening Amendment (Strengthening the Working with Children Check) Bill 2025 which contains important reforms to strengthen Victoria’s Working with Children check laws. The Working with Children check scheme in the Worker Screening Act 2020 (Act) seeks to support the protection of children by screening the criminal history information and relevant regulatory and disciplinary findings of people who work with children.

National mutual recognition of Working with Children exclusions

The Bill will amend the Act to recognise a Working with Children exclusion issued in another state or territory as an automatic exclusion under Victoria’s scheme. This implements the agreement made by the Commonwealth, states and territories at the Standing Council of Attorneys-General on 15 August 2025 to urgently work towards national mutual recognition, so that a person denied a clearance, or whose clearance has been revoked, in one jurisdiction cannot be granted or hold a Working with Children check in another jurisdiction. The Commonwealth Attorney-General, the Hon Michelle Rowland MP, referred to this nationwide reform as ‘banned in one, banned in all’.

This is a first step towards further national reforms including a National Continuous Checking Capability, which will be a secure system that continuously monitors Working with Children check holders against new criminal history information from national, state and territory datasets, which was a recommendation of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The Act currently provides for consideration of interstate Working with Children exclusions or equivalent notices, including at the application and re-assessment stage. The Act deals with interstate exclusions differently depending on the type of matter that gave rise to the exclusion. This means that, currently, some people who have been excluded in other jurisdictions can be issued a Working with Children clearance in Victoria.

The Bill will change this, so that all interstate Working with Children exclusions will be automatically recognised as exclusions in Victoria, as is already the case under South Australia and Queensland’s Working with Children check schemes. This will meet Victoria’s commitment to facilitate national mutual recognition of Working with Children exclusions. While there are differences in the legal frameworks for Working with Children checks across jurisdictions, there are nationally agreed standards and general consistency in the way the schemes operate. All jurisdictions share a common objective of preventing individuals who pose an unacceptable risk from working or volunteering with children.

Expanding Working with Children check suspension powers

In April, the Premier announced an urgent review of Victoria’s Working with Children check scheme. The review identified areas for reform, including expanding powers to suspend Working with Children checks on the basis of any assessment trigger, including any charge, conviction, finding of guilt or relevant regulatory or disciplinary finding.

Currently, Working with Children clearances can only be suspended before a re-assessment has been finalised in limited circumstances, including a person being charged with or convicted or found guilty of a sexual offence.

The Bill will expand the suspension powers in the Act to allow for the suspension of a person’s Working with Children clearance in circumstances where the Secretary is made aware of a charge, conviction or finding of guilt for a less serious offence, or a relevant disciplinary or regulatory finding. This will ensure that people who have been charged with a criminal offence, have a criminal record or who have been subject to a relevant regulatory or disciplinary finding are not able to work with children until after their eligibility has been rigorously assessed.

Importantly, these reforms will work in parallel with amendments recently made to the Worker Screening Regulations 2021 that expanded the number of findings that trigger the assessment of a person’s eligibility to have, or to hold, a Working with Children check, such as prohibition notices issued to early childhood staff by the Department of Education’s Quality Assessment and Regulation Division as well as equivalent notices issued in other states and territories.

Cancelling clearances granted in certain circumstances

Currently, the Act does not provide an express power to immediately cancel a Working with Children clearance where a Working with Children check application is made in breach of the Act or where a person provided false or misleading information as part of their application for a check or re-assessment of their eligibility to hold a clearance. The Bill introduces a new power to cancel a Working with Children clearance in these circumstances

This power is intended to act as a safety net in exceptional circumstances by allowing the Secretary to act immediately where it becomes apparent that a person should not have been able to validly apply for a Working with Children check or should not have been given a clearance on application or been able to retain their clearance on re-assessment where they provided information that was false or misleading.

Expanding the limitation period to prosecute the offence of providing false or misleading information

It is an offence under the Act for a person to provide false or misleading information in relation to a worker screening application or re-assessment unless the person believed on reasonable grounds that the information was true or was not misleading. This is a summary offence which means that a prosecution must be commenced within 12 months after the false or misleading information was alleged to have been provided.

However, an offence of this kind may go unnoticed for a period greater than 12 months, which means that criminal proceedings cannot be commenced as the limitation period would have expired. Given the potential implications for child safety, we consider that such a short period for prosecutions is not justified. People that provide false or misleading information should be held accountable.

The Bill will extend the limitation period for commencing proceedings for an offence of providing false or misleading information from 12 months to 5 years and 6 months. This reflects the 5-year duration of Working with Children checks, including the 6 months a person has following expiry to renew their Working with Children check, and will provide a greater deterrent for people who may provide false or misleading information as there is a higher chance that they will be caught and charged.

Further reforms to improve child safety

This Bill sends a clear message that any risk to child safety will not be tolerated.

The amendments in this Bill are the first step in strengthening the Working with Children check scheme to ensure that it remains an effective and rigorous government screening process.

It is our government’s priority to progress additional reforms to implement the recommendations of the independent Rapid Child Safety Review as quickly as possible to minimise the risk of harm to children in Victoria. Further legislative reforms will be brought to Parliament later this year.

I will continue to do everything in my power to ensure that Victoria’s Working with Children check system is robust, reliable and effectively prevents people who pose a risk to our children from working with them.

I commend the Bill to the house.