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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-08-19 Daily Xml
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Working with Children Checks

The Hon. C. BONAROS (16:33): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Attorney a question about the recent Standing Council of Attorneys-General meeting and its outcome on working with children check reforms.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: The Standing Council of Attorneys-General convened on Friday 15 August and agreed to fast-track several national reforms pertaining to working with children checks. Commitments made at the meeting include mutual national recognition of negative working with children decisions across all jurisdictions by the end of the year, as well as the introduction of a national continuous checking capability alongside national harmonisation of assessment frameworks. Advice suggests that while these are welcome steps, they have certainly been a long time coming. They will only be meaningful if every state, including South Australia, acts swiftly to implement them.

It was in November last year that The McKell Institute released its 'Safety not guaranteed' report on preventing young workers from experiencing predatory behaviour in consultation with the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association (SDA). Included within the recommendations of the report is a clear and urgent call for action regarding the accessibility of working with children checks, and I quote:

It is critical that any additional costs associated with protecting children at work are not borne by employees, either directly or indirectly.

My questions to the Attorney are:

1. What specific steps will the South Australian government take, and by what timeframe, to ensure the commitments made at the Standing Council of Attorneys-General are implemented in this state?

2. Acknowledging that we are amidst a cost-of-living crisis, will the government consider easing the financial burden placed on thousands of low-paid workers, including those in retail and fast-food sectors, who are expected to cover the cost of working with children checks by mandating employers to wear that responsibility?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (16:36): I thank the honourable member for her question. The member mentioned the McKell report. I was pleased, in reading the McKell report, that there was significant recognition of the reforms that we have passed in South Australia—reforms that the honourable member, along with the SDA and other interested parties, has been significantly involved with in terms of children working with registered and registrable child sex offenders.

The working with children checks regime in South Australia—it is not the same in every state around Australia—falls within the ministerial responsibilities of the Minister for Human Services and her department. However, in relation to the two commitments that were raised and discussed at the Standing Council of Attorneys-General on Friday, it was recognised that we may be the only jurisdiction, or one of the few jurisdictions, which already has a national recognition of negative checks.

In South Australia, if someone applies for a working with children check, the first step that is done is to see if there is a negative assessment from any other jurisdiction. If there is, that is the end of the checks; that person isn't assessed any further whatsoever. What has been suggested is 'done in one, done in all', effectively, for a national regime. We already do that in South Australia, and other jurisdictions have committed to working towards doing what we do here by the end of the year.

In relation to national harmonisation, there was discussion about what that would mean. What is not anticipated is that every jurisdiction will have exactly the same elements taken into account. Again, South Australia has probably the most stringent working with children checks in terms of what is taken into account: not just convictions, not just charges that have been laid, but investigations that the police have done, child protection related notifications and a range of other things.

What was recognised in the decisions and the communiqué out of the Standing Council of Attorneys-General was working towards national recognition, but noting not to diminish the protections that already apply in other states. So, in a lot of ways, what we already do in South Australia we look forward to other jurisdictions doing.

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