Statement From The Premier

Yesterday, I announced that we will commission an urgent review into child safety in early childhood education and care settings and the Working with Children Check in Victoria.

Today, I am announcing that this review will be led by Jay Weatherill AO and Pamela White PSM.

Jay Weatherill is the former Premier of South Australia and currently serves as Executive Director of Democracy at the McKinnon Foundation. He is recognised for his leadership in early childhood and tertiary education and was appointed in 2020 to lead the Minderoo Foundation’s Thrive by Five early learning reform campaign.

Pamela White has held senior roles across the Victorian Public Service for more than 30 years, working in child protection, disability, housing, youth justice, emergency management, and education. She received the Public Service Medal in 2012 for her service to disadvantaged communities and now chairs the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority and serves on the CFA Board.

This short and sharp review will be focused on reform work occurring nationally in relation to the early childhood education and care sector and consider where there are further immediate actions we can take as a state government, while the national work is progressed.

Further the review will consider reforms to the Working with Children Check in Victoria, to keep children safe wherever they are, whatever they are doing, when in the care of others.

The review will report back to the Government on Friday 15 August – and we will adopt every recommendation of the review and implement them as quickly as possible.

While this rapid review is underway, we are also taking urgent action to stop the use of personal devices in childcare centres, with every centre required to adopt a ban on personal devices by Friday 26 September – or face consequences including potential fines of $50,000 if they breach the license.

We are also imminently establishing a register of early childhood educators to track employment history and patterns. This will be able to link into a national registration system, once established.

I say again: this is a criminal matter and I won’t say or do anything that could jeopardise the process for justice.

My Government will take every action possible – as soon as possible – to strengthen safety standards in early childhood education and care, to keep Victorian children safe.