Education Minister Jason Clare has promised that a national register of early childhood education workers will be established, alongside other initiatives aimed at enhancing safety for children, following agreement from all states and territories today.
New national mandatory training will be rolled out for early childhood educators across the country, delivered by the Australian Centre for Child Protection, based at the University of South Australia.
Phones will be banned in childcare centres from September, and parents and carers will soon be able to access more information about the centres their children are attending.
Meanwhile, the states and territories have also agreed to a trial of putting cameras in up to 300 centres across the country, as well as a national assessment of the use of CCTV. With Federal funding provided, the trial is expected to start later this year.
Today’s meeting follows shocking revelations in recent weeks and months regarding physical and sexual abuse and alleged offenders working across dozens of centres.
“We have all got to step up here if we are serious about keeping our kids safe,” Clare said today.
He also conceded that these are just initial steps in reforming the system, and more changes will be necessary.
“Is it everything we need to do? No, of course it’s not.
“But it is the next thing we must do and we have agreed to do today.
“The awful truth is that work will never end because there will always be bad people who try to poke holes in the system and find vulnerabilities.”
The national register will require legislation to be developed, with plans to roll it out in February 2026 following a December 2025 trial.
Initially, this register will include names of individuals working in childcare, along with their locations and working with children’s checks. From there, it will be developed to include employment history and other information needed to, “identify red flags to tell if someone is moving quickly from centre to centre.”
Clare acknowledged privacy concerns regarding CCTV cameras and said that any regulation will be designed with care. Ongoing reviews should highlight vulnerabilities and ensure such footage isn’t being “hacked by paedophiles.”
He said there will be careful considerations regarding how the data is held and stored.
“This is not a silver bullet, none of this is. None of it is a guarantee. But it is an essential component of what we need to do if we are to keep our children safe.”