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Keeping Children Safe
Parents should be able to send their child to school, sport or a youth group knowing the adults in charge are safe to be there. The current system can leave three years between checks, even if worrying new Police information emerges in the meantime.
ACT will close that gap with one national card checked continuously. If someone is charged with a serious offence that could rule them out of working with children, their card can be suspended immediately. They must stop working with children while the case is assessed, and their employer will be told.
Read ACT’s full policy, Keeping Children Safe, here.
ACT will:
Create one national card that paid workers and volunteers must have to be able to work with children. It will belong to them and last three years.
Keep people convicted of specified serious offences against children out of covered roles.
Keep checking cardholders against new Police information. If Police learn someone may be dangerous, their card can be suspended. That means they cannot keep working with children, and every linked organisation will be told.
Give every cardholder practical child-protection training, refreshed when the card is renewed.
Keep applications exempt or discounted for volunteers and students. Paid workers will pay about $108, which employers will often cover.
In our team’s words:
ACT’s Children spokesperson Karen Chhour says:
“Parents should be able to leave their children with a teacher, coach, afterschool carer, or volunteer knowing the adults around them are safe to work with children.
“The current system does not provide that reassurance. Safety checks are carried out by individual employers and generally only re-checked every three years. This provides only a snapshot of a person at one point in time, with no consistent system for identifying risks that emerge between checks.
“The Working with Children Card gives parents peace of mind about their child’s safety, and creates a smarter, less burdensome screening process for employers and workers.”