Keep them safe: Parents, premiers and experts join campaign for a national children’s check register
Child predators are slipping through the cracks of Australia’s child protection systems, with one key safeguard considered a “game-changer”.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Child predators are routinely shapeshifting undetected and slipping through the cracks of a patchwork of eight separate child safety protection systems across the country, allowing them access to vulnerable children.
The Sunday Telegraph and its sister mastheads have exposed horrifying loopholes around the country putting our kids at risk.
Today we launch the ‘Keep Them Safe’ campaign to establish a national, public register of working with children checks accessible to parents, carers and community organisations, catching offenders who move across various jurisdictions to hide under the radar.
Among those calling for urgent reform are parents Andrew and Haimee Code, who have experienced the chilling fear of learning that an alleged predator may have been in close contact with their children.
The couple say a national Working with Children Check register would be a “game-changer” for parents who deserve to know their children are protected.
CALL FOR URGENT CHANGE
Child-safety experts are joining the call for urgent reforms including strengthened auditing systems in order to stop suspected offenders – including those facing serious allegations – from holding on to their clearances.
This investigation has revealed the lengths convicted sex offenders and those accused of sickening crimes are going to in order to gain access to children.
Alleged childcare pedophile Joshua Dale Brown’s WWCC was never re-examined after it was approved by Victorian authorities – despite reports submitted to the state’s reportable conduct scheme that he forcibly grabbed children on two occasions.
An overhauled auditing process where workers with existing clearances are investigated more frequently would mean alleged predators such as Brown could have potentially been red-flagged earlier.
Experts also say a national register and strengthened auditing could have potentially stopped Queenslander Ashley Paul Griffith from easily moving between states.
He pleaded guilty to more than 300 offences in childcare centres in Brisbane and Italy between 2007 and 2022.
Last week, a convicted sex offender, who was refused a WWCC from both the NSW Office of Children’s Guardian and NSW Administrative Tribunal, was told that he could make “another application” in the future to obtain a clearance.
In recent weeks, shocking revelations and consistent legal failures has forced the federal government to look closely at national checks and child-safety laws.
Holding a clearance is mandatory for any adult in child-related work – paid or unpaid – in every state and territory. It’s referred to as a WWCC in Victoria, NSW and South Australia, a blue card in Queensland, an ochre card in the NT and a working with vulnerable people check in the ACT.
Next week, the federal government will introduce new laws so that childcare operators can have their funding stripped if safety measures are not up to scratch, and allow officials to do spot checks of centres without a warrant.
Attorney-General Michelle Rowland has put this issue at the top of the agenda for a Standing Council of Attorneys-General meeting in August.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recommended a national WWCC scheme in 2018.
These recommendations have not been actioned, leading to a lack of information sharing between states, allowing predators to go unchecked, with experts labelling this as “shameful”.
Former youth worker Alex Jones was able to obtain a WWCC in Victoria despite being investigated for an alleged rape in NSW.
Because he was never charged in NSW, Victorian authorities were not told of the allegation.
In 2021, he was jailed for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy.
The auditing processes of how states regularly monitor WWCCs have also come under scrutiny.
In NSW, authorities audited 2628 organisations including childcare centres in the last year, despite 1.9 million people holding clearances.
So far, five premiers and two chief ministers have backed the Keep Them Safe campaign including NSW Premier Chris Minns, who has called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, premiers and chief ministers to work together to set up a searchable national register, ahead of next month’s COAG.
“Keeping children safe – whether they’re in a classroom, an early-learning centre or the care of adults in any setting – must be a national priority,” Mr Minns said.
“I want to work with other states and territories to create a national working with children register – a proposal that I will bring to the national cabinet.”
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan also agreed that this was “a national issue”, adding that a nationally consistent WWCC framework must be a top priority for the federal government.
Queensland has backed the national campaign, with Premier David Crisafulli calling for reform to prevent predators from “sneaking through the gaps”.
South Australian Acting Premier Susan Close said the state government “is open to a national system.”
NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said she supported creating a national database, while the WA and ACT governments have also thrown their hats in the ring.
ACU’s Institute of Child Protection Studies director Professor Daryl Higgins said WWCCs were “cumbersome to get”. “It isn’t a unified and national system, and it still lets people through the cracks,” he said.
Professor Higgins said it was “shameful” that no action had been taken since the findings from the royal commission were handed down.
Sheree Buchanan, head of abuse law at Law Partners, said a national register would protect children from harm in order to prevent pedophiles from “flying under the radar”.
Ms Buchanan said every state should also strengthen their auditing processes labelling the system as “reactive” rather than a “proactive” approach, calling for weekly, if not, daily auditing checks conducted in every state.
Danielle De Paoli, special counsel and head of Maurice Blackburn’s NSW abuse law practice, said a national register was “critical” to prevent predators from exploiting loopholes.
Scouts Australia chief commissioner Brendan Watson said: “We have found that a charge in one jurisdiction – even if it is dismissed – can prohibit an applicant from receiving a card there but not in another.”
PARENTS CAUGHT IN PREDATOR NIGHTMARE
Andrew and Haimee Code have experienced first-hand the dread and anxiety of discovering an alleged predator may have had access to their children, and believe a national Working with Children Check register would be “a game-changer” for families like theirs.
A letter from police dropped into Mr Code’s inbox on an ordinary Tuesday night, kickstarting a series of events that have rocked the Sydney couple and left them calling for a shake-up of the WWCC system.
The letter said their child had attended a venue where a staff member had been arrested and charged with unspeakable offences.
As far as they know, Mr and Mrs Code don’t believe their children were harmed.
“I had to have a very direct conversation with both my children, and my eight-year-old had nightmares that night,” Mrs Code recalled.
“As a parent there’s enough guilt already thanks to Instagram, for us to be feeling guilty for having our kids in someone else’s care while we work full-time.”
More recent revelations that childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown allegedly abused eight toddlers and babies in his care in a separate case in Victoria, have left the Code family even more shaken.
“There’s just this blind trust that you have to have as a parent. A lot of that trust has been eroded in the past months, both with the mail we’ve received and the situation in Victoria.”
Mr Code now leaves work early to pick up his kids from school, and brings them back to his workplace for the rest of the afternoon, just to feel they are safe.
“Some of these cases are absolutely horrendous, and its obvious that there’s not enough protections in place.
“Lawmakers, whether they have kids themselves or not, have a responsibility to protect the people who can’t protect themselves.”
In the Code family’s case, the venue now re-examines their staff members’ working with children checks every week.
Previously, it was “just a ‘set and forget’,” Mrs Code said.
Transparency over the status of those checks at the national level is “long overdue”, she added, and organisations should be proactively notified if anyone on their books is under investigation.
“A national register for employees and volunteers will be a game-changer … and there should be a technology solution for this,” she said.
Mr Code added.: “It needs to be a system where parents can look it up as well as employers”.
More Coverage
Originally published as Keep them safe: Parents, premiers and experts join campaign for a national children’s check register
TV star Julia Zemiro upgrades with Bowral homestead
Popular comedian, actor and TV presenter Julia Zemiro and her partner, real estate agent Carsten Prien, have found a buyer for their Bowral home as they upgrade in the Southern Highlands.
Major search underway for fisherman missing off NSW coast
A desperate search is underway for a man who departed Batemans Bay Marina on his boat around 6am on Saturday and was last heard from at 10am the same day.