00:00This proposal comes from here in New South Wales, where there had been a series of scandals
00:06and concerns about child safety at childcare centres.
00:10The New South Wales Government commissioned an inquiry led by former New South Wales Deputy
00:14Ombudsman Chris Wheeler.
00:16One of his interesting recommendations, which the Government agreed to adopt, was that at
00:21centres where there had been problems with child safety, regulators could come in and
00:27install cameras and then remotely monitor them as an extra form of compliance.
00:32Now when Education Ministers met for a scheduled meeting in Adelaide last month, Mr Wheeler
00:37actually attended and gave them a briefing on this development, as well as some other child
00:42safety measures, and the ABC understands State Education Ministers are now considering whether
00:47or not this proposal will work for them too, as they also deal with a child safety crisis
00:54of confidence in their own states.
00:56And they're due to report back by the time of the next Education Ministers meeting in August.
01:02The plan wouldn't be that cameras would be mandated in all centres, rather that in centres where
01:08there had been problems, they would be installed and then remotely monitored by regulators.
01:13Some providers have already moved to install CCTV off their own bat.
01:18How has this been received?
01:20Yes, that's right Meredith, G8, the largest for-profit provider in Australia, yesterday
01:25announced it would fast-track plans to install CCTV in all 400 of its centres.
01:30It's been under a lot of pressure.
01:31The value of the company has tanked after revelations that a Melbourne childcare worker who was charged
01:37with 70 offences had worked at a number of their centres.
01:41The early Education Minister, Senator Jess Walsh, told me that the government welcomed this initiative,
01:48but they viewed it as just one of many things that needed to happen.
01:52We also know that Goodstart, which is the largest childcare provider of any type in Australia,
01:58and also a not-for-profit provider with more than 600 centres, has been installing CCTV in all of its new facilities since 2022.
02:08However, it said if it was going to retrofit all of its centres in the way that G8's done,
02:12it would need government support to do that.
02:14And interestingly, in a statement to me, it said that it viewed this as just a minor measure
02:19and that far more important was proper supervision, training and staffing levels.
02:25And really, that was the view from experts and unions when I worked the phones on this story.
02:30They told me that they see this as far more important, proper staffing, cracking down on centres
02:36that are working around ratios and required numbers of staff.
02:40And as one expert said, if there was a problem with a childcare centre and it was serious enough
02:45that we thought children's safety was at risk, why wouldn't we shut it down instead of monitoring it with CCTV?
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