A clear plan to keep children safe

The Victorian Liberals and Nationals have announced a new six-point plan to keep children safe and begin restoring community confidence in Victoria’s childcare system.

The Nationals’ Member for Euroa, Annabelle Cleeland, said the reforms were a direct response to the Allan Labor Government’s ongoing failure to act.

“Local families deserve peace of mind when they drop their children off each morning,” Ms Cleeland said.

“Labor has ignored repeated warnings, and children have been left at risk as a result.

“We’re not waiting around – we have a plan that puts safety first and gives parents the transparency they deserve.”

Since 2018, complaints to the regulator, the Quality Assessment and Regulation Division (QARD), have increased by 45 per cent, while enforcement actions have dropped by 67 per cent.

Despite calls for urgent action, the Allan Labor Government has refused to recall Parliament and instead launched another review aimed at managing political fallout rather than fixing the system.

In response, the Victorian Liberals and Nationals are putting forward a clear plan for immediate, practical reforms to improve safety in childcare settings across the state. These reforms include:

1. Fix the Working With Children Check (WWCC): Close WWCC loopholes by empowering assessors to act on any information relevant to a person’s suitability to work with children.
2. Give parents the right to know: Provide live, centre-by-centre safety, compliance and performance data.
3. Raise the bar on workforce standards: Establish a central register of all early childhood workers.
4. Create an independent childcare safety watchdog: Establish a regulator with powers to prevent, investigate, enforce and report misconduct in a transparent and accountable way.
5. Ban personal phones and install CCTV: Immediately ban personal phones from childcare centres and work with operators to install secure CCTV as appropriate.
6. Link federal funding to safety: Tie childcare subsidies to safety performance, ensuring centres with strong records are rewarded and those that fail are held accountable.

“These are practical, immediate reforms that will improve safety across every early learning setting,” Ms Cleeland said.

“These reforms will give parents transparency, hold centres to account, and ensure that safety is no longer optional. It must be expected and enforced.

“We are standing up for children, for parents, and for the educators who are doing the right thing and want to work in a system that puts safety first.

“Victoria can and must do better. These reforms are the crucial first step.”

The Victorian Liberals and Nationals are ready to work with the Parliament to pass the required legislation and implement these urgently needed reforms without delay.