00:00We're really, really pleased to see that the federal government and the state governments
00:07have made some wonderful commitments to improving safeguarding measures for the sector. We really
00:13think that the suite of things on offer are really very comprehensive, led by the National
00:18Early Childhood Educator Register amongst a whole raft of other measures. We think that
00:26what we want to see are measures in place that allow everybody in the sector to have
00:30full visibility of the people we're putting in front of our children. That includes our
00:34regulators, it includes our employers, so that we can have the best possible protections available to
00:39them. How much of a setback has confidence had in the sector of late? Look, it's undeniable that
00:48the last few months have broken the trust of many, many families out there and we all have a
00:55responsibility, anybody contributing to this sector to build that confidence again. It needs strong
00:59leadership from governments, it needs providers and to be able to commit to priorities and prioritising
01:06child safety and it needs our workforce as well to be built, to build their capacity so that they can
01:12work and understand what behaviours need to be reported. Paul, I think many parents would be
01:18staggered to learn that there aren't mandatory child safety training guidelines already. Why aren't
01:25there and do the people you represent, do the bodies you represent do it anyway? Yeah look, there is a
01:32whole lot of training around child safety. What we know in Australia is that there are different
01:36regulatory functions from one state to another. Some have child safe standards, some don't have child
01:42safe standards. There is child protection training which is mandatory which is slightly different to
01:47child safety training there and so I think that we're in a position now where there is strong
01:53leadership to be able to drive this and ensure that what is happening in best practice services is
01:59happening at all services. You'll know there's been criticism that some child care providers have put
02:05profit over child safety and welfare. I know many of your people you represent are for-profit organisations.
02:15Where can the for-profit organisations make a difference to what they're doing and not put
02:20profits before child care? Look, I think if we try to oversimplify the problem we're not going to deal
02:28with all of the solutions that are needed. Issues and incidents in services are not limited to one
02:34governance type or another and so what we really really need and what we need for everybody because
02:39there are a large number of providers doing amazing work out there is for every provider in the sector
02:45to be committing 100% to child safety in every way and if that is the goal and that is the overarching
02:51principle for people the rest of the governance issues around how a service is run become a second
02:56part of that problem. A couple of things that some in the sector have perhaps criticised the
03:03the announcement today is it doesn't talk about ratios as in the number of staff per child and
03:08it doesn't talk about the problem with getting enough staff a shortage of staff in the sector are
03:13they two aspects that you will be pushing for for the for any new regulations to look at?
03:21I think one of the key things that was announced today was for a secret to review things like ratios
03:26and things like under the roof lines and how that might work in practice and what are the things that
03:30need to be done to be able to tighten any gaps in that way I believe that they will be reporting back
03:35to education ministers before the end of the year so I think there is already an action in place to
03:41review the frameworks around how we operate each and every day our workforce supply is absolutely has
03:47been an ongoing challenge for the sector albeit there have been improvements over the last 12 months
03:51in terms of the number of educators and teachers available to the sector this is a long-term approach and
03:58really one of the things that's critical for us right now is that in order to ensure that our workforce
04:05has the capacity it needs we need to retain them and we need to build and scaffold on their experience
04:10month on month and year on year because it is a strong experienced workforce that allows us to
04:16mitigate many of the risks that are out there Paul the members of that workforce the people
04:21that you are representing worry about having CCTV in some centres worry about the mobile phone ban in
04:28centres mobile phone bans have actually been policy in many many services across the country for a very
04:35long time and so I think the change to banning mobile personal mobile phones when people are providing
04:41education and care to children is going to be less of a transition for some services than it will be for
04:47others out there CCTV is is a complicated when I say complicated there are people with different
04:55perspectives on whether CCTV is is the right method to be able to improve child safety and I think that
05:02the government's approach of trialling uh trialling CCTV and early education services is really important so
05:08that that way we can truly understand in the context of an early childhood setting exactly whether the risks of CCTV
05:15um are more significant or less significant than the rewards of having them but what we do know with CCTV
05:22and what's been really clear from many of the um reports back from police through this last little bit is
05:28its best function is as an investigative tool and maybe not quite so much as a deterrent so I think that
05:34it's really important for us to use evidence to inform any decisions around CCTV in the future and that the trial is
05:40is a contextual evidence base that can help inform policy decisions. Paul Mondo from the Australian Childcare
05:47Alliance thank you for talking to us. Thank you.
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