2025-08-07
The Victorian Greens say it’s startling that the Allan Labor Government has refused to commit to closing loopholes that have allowed individuals charged with serious allegations of abuse to retain the ability to work with children.
Revelations in The Age this morning expose serious gaps in Victoria’s WWCC system - including cases where individuals who have confessed to police, faced serious allegations, or been convicted of abuse offences were able to appeal bans through VCAT and have been cleared to work with children.
While New South Wales is moving to fix similar failures by handing oversight of WWCCs to a specialist child safety regulator. The Attorney General did not respond when asked by the Age if the government would consider introducing similar laws and that the government’s response was that “any crackdown on WWCC laws may have little to no impact on how VCAT reviews appeals”.
The Victorian Greens say that we’re in a childcare crisis where all reforms should be on the table, no matter how complicated and that if New South Wales is able to find ways to close these dangerous loopholes, we should be able to as well.
The Greens also criticised the Labor Government’s decision to deflect to their review with the spokesperson for Early Childhood Anasina Gray-Barberio saying that while Victorians keep finding out about these deep flaws in the system through the media, it’s Labor using their narrow departmental review as a talking point to deflect, is not good enough.
The Greens are calling for an independent child safety watchdog saying that because the whole system has been so terribly unregulated, this is the first step to making sure that we have the systems and processes in place to keep children safe, like proper oversight of the WWCC system.
The Greens have also established a powerful parliamentary inquiry to examine the full extent of the failures in the childcare and child safety systems, but say immediate action from the Labor Government is essential and shouldn’t be delayed.
Quotes attributable to Victorian Greens Early Childhood spokesperson Anasina Gray-Barberio:
“It’s pretty remarkable that the Victorian Government is effectively saying its hands are tied while New South Wales is moving to close these loopholes. There is no excuse. If another state can act, so can we.”
“Total silence from the Attorney General when asked if Victoria will look to close one of the most dangerous loopholes in the system is shocking. We should be doing everything we can to fix this system that’s supposed to protect children but it’s waiting through people with clear red flags and instead of doing something, the government keeps pointing back to this weak review as a shield. This review is being used as a copy-paste response to everything and it proves that this government has no direction on how to handle this crisis.”
“This is exactly why the Greens have been calling for an independent watchdog, with the power to oversee systems like the Working With Children Check, ensure public transparency, and drive meaningful reform.”