Interview - Sunrise

MONIQUE WRIGHT: "A slap in the face." That's how child safety advocates are describing Anthony Albanese's latest attempt to crack down on crime in the childcare sector. It comes as Labor accepted just one of the 23 recommendations from a landmark Senate inquiry exposing the failures that have allowed predators to target vulnerable children. Questions are now mounting over who's taking responsibility to keep our kids safe, with calls growing louder for a federal Minister for Child Safety. For more, we're joined now by Jason Clare, who's the Minister for Education. Morning to you, Jason.

JASON CLARE: Good morning, Mon.

WRIGHT: Okay, this came on the back of those horrific, horrific cases of child abuse that happened in childcare centres that we spoke to you about at length. So, only one of these 23 recommendations the government's taken on board. Why only one?

CLARE: I asked the Federal Police the other day what's the most important thing that we've done here to keep our kids safe in childcare and they told me it's banning mobile phones in centres, and this is breakfast TV, so I'm not going to explain why, but I think all mums and dads out there know why it's important that we've got personal mobile phones out of centres. The second thing they said was cutting off funding to centres that aren't meeting the safety standards, and we've done that too. And the third thing is mandatory safety training for every single person who works in these centres so they can spot a predator that might be hiding in plain sight. And that's the CEO, that's the chairman of the board, that's the cook in the kitchen, that's people working on the floor of the centre. Ministers spoke about this again when we met on Monday. And we'll have more to say about the next steps in keeping our kids safe in childcare centres in the next few days. But the truth is, Mon, not enough has been done by any government, State or Federal, Labor or Liberal, over the last 10 years. And that's now changing because of the action that I'm taking and leading right across the country.

WRIGHT: But the AFP also told the inquiry that child sex offenders are often caught by police, not by the centres. Now, the government has partially accepted a recommendation calling for closer integration of law enforcement and the childcare centres. Why have you only partially supported that?

CLARE: Yeah, and part of that is because of the child protection work that police do spotting photographs on the dark web. That's why they've said to me, get the phones out of the centres. That's why the action that we've taken there is so important. But this is personal for me, Mon -

WRIGHT: Sure, so, what sort of integration - sorry to interrupt you, Jason. Sorry. But how are they going to work together? What is the government pushing for here in terms of that integration that the AFP and the centres are asking for?

CLARE: Well, it's a couple of things. It's the AFP working closely with state counterparts. It's making sure that working with children checks work right across the country. So, if a paedophile moves from one centre to another, from state to state, then they're caught. And if you're banned in one state, you're banned everywhere. I've got to tell you, Mon, this is pretty personal for me. You know, I've got friends in Victoria whose kids were caught up in what this scumbag did to them in Victoria. And I'll do every single thing within my power to make sure that I keep our kids safe in our centres for the more than one million parents who rely on those centres every single day. That means working with the police, it means working with attorneys general, but it also means working with the centres and if they're not up to scratch, we'll cut their funding and they can lock the door.

WRIGHT: Okay, look, 23 recommendations. It's only a week old. Just before we let you go, are you going to look at the rest? Rest of the recommendations?

CLARE: This work is never done, Mon. And we will continue to comb through this report, just like there are other reports at a state level as well. But the first people I'll talk to and rely upon for the best advice on this is the Australian Federal Police.

WRIGHT: All right, thanks very much, Jason Clare.

CLARE: Good on you.