‘Critical’ children’s commissioner role ‘needs to be filled with urgency’

11 hours ago 3

The critical role of Commissioner for Children and Young People must be filled urgently, the Victorian government says, despite leaving the role vacant for more than three months before the state’s most serious childcare safety crisis erupted.

Deputy Premier and Education Minister Ben Carroll also said the state’s rapid review into the childcare sector would look into the government’s failure to heed the former commissioner’s warnings on child sexual abuse over several years.

Childcare worker Joshua Brown has been charged with 70 offences related to child sexual abuse.

This masthead revealed on Wednesday that Victoria’s former commissioner for children and young people, Liana Buchanan, had long predicted in her warnings to the government that the continued underfunding of a vital oversight scheme administered by the Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP) would result in the abuse of children.

Substantiated allegations the man at the centre of Melbourne’s childcare crisis, Joshua Brown, had acted violently toward children in his care were reported to the Reportable Conduct Scheme for review but were not escalated to a suspension of his working with children check.

Brown now stands accused of abusing eight preschoolers at a Point Cook childcare centre in 2022 and 2023, with more allegations being investigated in a case that has prompted authorities to call for thousands of children to be tested for sexually transmitted infections.

Responding on Wednesday morning to revelations about Buchanan’s warnings, Carroll said the rapid review, led by former South Australian premier Jay Weatherill, will “look at everything”.

Deputy Premier and Education Minister Ben Carroll.

“My understanding is that they will look at everything,” Carroll said.

“Lizzie Blandthorn, the minister for children, the premier, have all said we’re going to implement all the recommendations, and if it does include changes to the system around families, children, the reportable conduct scheme, for example, yes, certainly we’ll accept those recommendations and make those changes.”

Buchanan repeatedly pleaded with the government for more money to run the scheme, which has not had its funding increased since it began in 2017, despite a 136 per cent growth in the number of cases it was asked to examine each year.

The former commissioner bluntly warned that the continued lack of funding would result in children being abused by people who could and should have been removed from the system.

With the commissioner’s role still vacant – four months after Buchanan’s departure and with Acting Commissioner Meena Singh holding down two full-time jobs – Carroll said Blandthorn was urgently trying to fill the role but he did not say when the government would announce a replacement.

“I know Minister Blandthorn is working on it,” Carroll said.

“I know Meena Singh, she’s an excellent advocate, well experienced, but yep, we’ll work on that, it needs to be filled with urgency.

“There’s no more important role in society than investing in our young people. This is a critical appointment.”

The deputy premier also welcomed the federal government’s move to make the childcare sector more accountable for children’s safety, with new legislation announced on Wednesday morning.

Carroll said he had not been fully briefed on the package but said the general approach was correct.

“[Federal Education Minister Jason Clare] is basically taking a stick to the sector to say, if there are breaches, and there have been breaches ... of working with children checks and there hasn’t been the accountability, he’s going to withdraw the funding,” Carroll said.

“He’s going to make sure that he can hit them where it hurts, by withdrawing money that they rely on.

“So I think he’s doing the right thing. I commend him, and it’s good that he’s doing it in their first week of Parliament back.”

More to come