Transcript – ABC Radio Melbourne with Raf Epstein

RAFAEL EPSTEIN, HOST:  Let’s turn our attention to what our Federal and State Ministers will do, how they will try to keep our kids safe. I want to know what you make of what you hear. CCTV, national register –

these are all the ideas that are running around. 1300 222 774 is the phone number. Jess Walsh is the Minister for Early Childhood Education in the Federal Government. Minister, good morning.

SENATOR DR JESS WALSH, MINISTER FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND MINISTER FOR YOUTH: Thanks for having me, Raf.

EPSTEIN: If I can start with CCTV – who wants all of this CCTV? It sounds a bit more like a problem than a solution.

WALSH: Well, CCTV, Raf, is one part of what is the biggest ever child safety package in early childhood education in our nation's history that we're bringing to this meeting. And I do want your listeners to know that CCTV is part of it. The first ever nationwide register of early educators is part of it too. Mandatory child safe training is really important and will be on the table today, along with more transparency to help parents hold providers to account. So, we want parents to know more information about what's going on in their services to help them make choices and hold providers to account.

EPSTEIN: Just on the CCTV, though, a lot of parents get nervous about can it be just as much misused as used. Is it just an announceable? I'm just keen to drill down on who thinks it's a big part of the solution.

WALSH: Sure. So, CCTV is already out there in services, Raf, and we think it's time to assess the effectiveness of CCTV in keeping children safe. It has been a recommendation from both Victorian and NSW reviews that have been undertaken while these horrendous allegations and stories have been aired in early childhood education. So, what we want to do is put a framework around it. We will get an independent expert to look at CCTV, how it can help keep children safe, but also what the guardrails are that need to be put around CCTV to help keep children safe.

EPSTEIN: Does it mean you're committed to some mandatory form of it?

WALSH: No, it's an assessment, Raf. So, we're going to draw 300 services into this assessment program. We're going to appoint an independent expert to have oversight of this program. Sometimes State regulators, require services to install CCTV where they have some initial concerns, and we’ll draw those services into this assessment. And we'll also encourage services who want to look at CCTV to participate on a voluntary basis as well. And we'll take a good look at it and get some advice back about how to use it effectively and what the guardrails are that are needed.

EPSTEIN: Jess Walsh is who you're listening to, the Federal Minister for Early Childhood Education. All of these Ministers getting together today to try and find some of the answers. A national register. Everyone's a bit slow to this one, aren't you? Like, it seems obvious that that should have been there for some time.

WALSH: Oh, look, I think it is pretty clear that this should have been in place and we are putting it into place. So, we are confident we'll come out of this meeting with a decision to have the first ever nationwide register of early childhood educators. I think as Victorians, we're all really aware of why it's needed. We have this horrific alleged offending in Victoria. We've been in a situation where police are having to use search and seize powers to find pieces of paper, you know, that show police where this alleged offender worked. That is just not good enough. We need to know where our early childhood educators are working. We need our regulators to know that. We need them to be able to track patterns of behaviour, raise flags and take appropriate action.

EPSTEIN: It's the same system that we've been talking about all week in child care. Minister, just on the register. For example, I heard your colleague Jason Clare saying on TV this morning, you’re going to have a national register up and running and working in February next year. How confident are you of that? Like, again, I think people love the idea and it seems to be a big part of the solution. Can you actually get that working, functioning fully, by February next year?

WALSH: We can. That's the advice that we have. As soon as the meeting makes the decision today to go ahead with the register, the work to build it will begin. Providers will start uploading information from December and it will be mandatory from February for providers to participate in that register. And for the first time, we'll know, not just at a state level, but at a national level, where early childhood educators are working. And regulators will be able to see that information as they should be able to, to help guide their interventions.

EPSTEIN: And just back to the CCTV idea, Goodstart have been pretty vocal about this. They're a big provider. They call the CCTV just one tool, and a minor one. A lot of people, I think, assume that if you've got a data bank of video of young kids, it is going to be hacked. How confident are you about it as a big part of the solution?

WALSH: Well, I agree with those comments that you've cited there from Goodstart, that it's a part of the solution, but not the only solution. In terms of confidence, you know, we do need to have this assessment, and we do need to understand what the guardrails are that need to be in place.

EPSTEIN: Is it just an announceable that you can say, you know, say something today?

WALSH: Absolutely not, Raf. And you're focused on CCTV, but I also want to draw your attention to some of the other measures as well, particularly mandatory child safe training. So, CCTV is definitely part of the solution and it's the regulators and the police who are really interested in having it. And a lot of parents do feel confident at the idea that CCTV will be there. Other parents, as you've said, have concerns about images being stored. It's part of the solution. It's not a silver bullet and we want to look at the guardrails around it. But you can't replace long term, dedicated early childhood educators who know what they're looking for when they go into work every day. And that is what is most critical to me in all of this. So, mandatory child safe training is a really important part of this package.

EPSTEIN: Labor's been talking since opposition, since the deep days of the COVID lockdowns, about early childhood education. Labor has not been talking about mandatory child safe training. At the same time, it's a bit wild, isn't it, that we're only now talking about that?

WALSH: Well, there's training for early childhood educators in how to keep people safe. That's part of the training. This is dedicated training that is really about detecting signs of child abuse.

EPSTEIN. So, I guess I'm saying that we're a bit late to the mandatory part, aren't we?

WALSH: Look, again, Raf, I think the best time to have put some of these measures into place would have been ahead of all of these absolutely horrific allegations and experiences that parents are having that no parent should have. I mean, there is no doubt about that. No one shies away from that. The second best time to do this is now. We are in a meeting today, an urgent meeting that's been called to deal with this. What I'm really focused on is taking action now, Raf. I want to come out of this meeting with a strong, united plan. I want the states and territories to be working in lockstep with the Commonwealth. I want parents to know that we are focused on keeping children safe. I want parents to know that we will work together with the states and territories to restore their confidence in early learning, because the vast majority of early childhood educators are there to do the right thing and we want to support them to do that with these reforms.

EPSTEIN: Jess Walsh is the Minister for Early Childhood Education in the Federal Government. Thanks so much for your time today. Good luck with it.

WALSH: Thank you. Raf.