‘Our Port Arthur moment’: Tougher Working with Children’s checks demanded

A campaigner wants to toughen up the rubber stamp Working with Children checks across the country, saying nothing is being done.

Working With Children checks must include mandatory two-hour online training courses following allegations of abuse at childcare centres across the country, a campaigner has demanded.

Child protection advocate Emma Hakansson will renew her push for toughen up training for volunteers across the country when she travels to Canberra on Thursday.

She will meet with politicians from major parties at Parliament House in an urgent bid to increase protection for children.

The Australian Childhood Foundation want Australians with a WWC to do an online course on how to spot signs of abuse rather than just the current rubber stamp if a person does not have a criminal record.

“We are so shocked by child abuse that it actually stops us from confronting it,” she said.

“Hopefully the recent attention will finally lead to swift action and be a similar situation for reform in the way that gun laws were changed after the Port Arthur massacre.”

Emma Hakansson will visit Parliament House on Thursday. Picture: Tony Gough

Australia has been shocked by reports that Melbourne childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown allegedly abused children at a string of centres across the city.

Mr Brown is facing more than 70 charges relating to alleged offending between April 2022 and January 2023 but he has yet to enter a plea.

Police had to contact more than 2600 families who may have been affected, while 1200 children were urged to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases.

All checks have been negative so far, health authorities have said.

New South Wales Police, in a separate case, arrested in July two childcare workers for allegedly assaulting a 17-month old boy in their care.

Queensland police also made arrests in relation to separate matters of childcare workers accused of abusing children, with a 21-year-old man from Brisbane charged over alleged “indecent treatment” of a four-year-old.

A child protection report line call centre. The Australian Childhood Foundation has been campaigning for Working With Children checks to include mandatory two-hour online training courses on how to spot signs of abuse. Picture: NewsWire/Emma Brasier

Ms Hakansson, an abuse survivor, said she was frustrated at the lack of action by current and former governments.

“I was 15 when I spoke at the Royal Commission into Child Abuse, and I’m almost 26 now – that’s a decade, and nothing has changed,” she said.

The campaign for toughening Working With Children’s checks began three years ago, with the Australian Childhood Foundation now urging people to email their local MP to push for change.

An online course would cost approximately $2 million to set up and would include audio guides for people who may struggle with literacy.

The campaign ask was based on interviews with abuse survivors who argued that more education was needed for people to spot signs of abuse.

The Australian Child Maltreatment Study, which surveyed more than 8500 people in a random sample in 2023, found that 28.5 per cent of people had been sexually abused.

To sign the petition, visit childhood.org.au