00:00Look, any efforts to improve the care and safety for children, particularly in our early childhood
00:07settings, are incredibly welcome.
00:10What we'll be leaning into and what the sector, of course, is always looking for is have we
00:14seen in these reforms the announcements that look to where there have been systemic failings.
00:19So we know in some of the, obviously the headline is always going to be CCTV cameras in your
00:26services.
00:27So I totally understand that that for a parent, from a parent's perspective, knowing that
00:32someone has eyes on your child is really, really important.
00:35But these things need to be approached with a level of caution because there is no such
00:40thing as a panacea that overcomes systemic failings in a current funding model that has prioritised
00:46profits over children.
00:48So when you're looking at things like that, some of the things that the government is going
00:51to need to keep on its radar is what will the cost of that be?
00:55What, how will you monitor it effectively?
00:58Who is, are those systems hackable?
01:01In this day and age, it's really easy for those sorts of monitoring systems to be hacked
01:07and used in a way that is not good and certainly not good for children.
01:10And does it give a false sense of security for families when what we really know we really
01:16desperately need is an incredible investment into the workforce and infrastructure that supports
01:22children?
01:23And you've touched on there some of those issues around data security, not least privacy of
01:30those children and young people as well.
01:33In amongst all of this, we've heard today calls that this is a systemic issue and that
01:40it's actually the systems and the structures that are part of the core issue here, which
01:44is, it sounds to me like what you're saying.
01:46So then the other side of that is what are the solutions to those?
01:49What do you see those as?
01:52Look, the big one, workforce and investment and the funding model, they're the three big
01:56ones.
01:57So workforce, we need a, you know, the people that work in the early education and care
02:03settings, the vast majority of them are incredible people and their only interest is the care
02:08and welfare of your children.
02:09But the current policy settings are such as those workforce isn't as valued as, say, the
02:15workforce in a school.
02:16How do we improve that?
02:17How do we create a pipeline of incredible workers who set our children up for success
02:24and ensure that all of your children are safe in those incredible settings?
02:27The other one being, well, how do we change that?
02:30You've got to change it by looking at the systems and structures.
02:32One of those is the current funding model.
02:35So the funding model, as I've touched on a bit, currently says, it currently weights
02:40itself to for profit.
02:42And again, when we're looking at the care of children, for profit shouldn't be your
02:47gain, your ultimate gain.
02:48Your ultimate gain should be the care and protection of children.
02:52So at some point in time, the government is going to need to lean into the recommendations
02:56of the Productivity Commission that said, move away from that.
02:59Invest in children, stand up a dedicated commission.
03:03So what do commissions do?
03:05Commissions look at the legislation, the laws, the policies and the practices that lead to
03:10horrific failings.
03:12They not only look at it and make recommendations, but then they stay the course with the sector
03:17and say, how do we implement that reform?
03:19Now, one of the things people have been looking at for a very long time, and again, it's in
03:23these reforms, is how do we better keep track of the working with children story?
03:28So there hasn't been any way to look at that nationally before.
03:32These reforms will lean into that.
03:34That's a good thing.
03:35They'll also look at that.
03:36But again, with all of those things, it'll be work alongside your sector, work alongside
03:41your communities and your families so you know what you're actually looking for and
03:45not inadvertently bringing in a practice that, again, hides where predators sit.
03:50And, Catherine, much of the work that your organisation does is around places that can be very remote,
03:59regional, rural, where there aren't all the services that certainly intersects with what
04:03you're talking about, workforce investment and funding there.
04:08But have those areas been enough of this focus of these national conversations that we're
04:14seeing from the Federal Minister and the state and territory counterparts?
04:17Look, whenever it comes to regional and remote and very remote settings, what we say to government
04:23without fail is they need a dedicated and targeted stream of work and action that responds to what
04:30we're actually looking at in those particular environments.
04:34Now, what we know about, say, for example, the multifunctional Aboriginal community controlled
04:38services, where we have them, we don't have enough of them, but where we have them, they are
04:42quite remarkable tools that they brought in years and years ago because, again, they're based on
04:48what communities understand keep children safe. So they brought in rules around how many people are in a room
04:54at any particular time with a child. So when you're talking about safety of children, that is going to be
05:00far more effective than a camera at any point in time. That, say, for example, when a child has its nappy
05:06changed, there are two people in the room. That makes a massive difference. When a child is eating
05:12dinner to make sure that they're, you know, eating their meals in a way that they're not choking on it
05:17or throwing it away so they're not getting the nutrients that they might require, having enough
05:21eyes on children at those points in time, enough eyes on children when they play. Those things are
05:25really, really critically important. And again, those things will shift depending on which communities
05:31you're working with, whether that's regional, remote, very remote, or even in urban environments
05:36sometimes. But at the heart of them comes down to the investment into the services themselves and
05:42the investment into the workforce that makes a workforce the one that you need to ensure that
05:47your children are safe and protected. And just finally, Catherine, a little, there's a lot that
05:52you've outlined there and there have been many calls for action. What do you think is the greatest
05:58and most pressing priority and need right now? The greatest, okay, I'm going to give you two. One
06:04is invest in a commission. Invest in a commission that stays the course and implements genuine reform
06:10and that reform that points to where the system failures are that led to the current environment
06:16that we're in right now. It wasn't a lack of CCTV footage. Now, we know that, again, our parents want
06:23that, that is an important thing to respond to. But what is, what they want at the heart of it is
06:27their children to be safe. Stand up that commission that stays the course on the reforms and then
06:32genuinely looks at the second point. And that is a complete reform, a structural reform on how our
06:38early education and care services are funded. One that moves away from making profits off children
06:44and instead invests its services, its workforce streams, its structures, its policies, its laws
06:51around the safety and wellbeing of children.
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