00:00Cronin, thank you very much for joining us.
00:04Thank you, Claudia.
00:05You've also recommended that all governments focus on preventing and responding to child sexual exploitation as part of this report.
00:12Earlier this week, Four Corners revealed that pedophiles have infiltrated Australia's childcare system.
00:18It's obviously an incredibly disturbing story.
00:20Some parents' groups have called for a national childcare regulator to help respond to that.
00:25What do you make of that call?
00:27I think it's deeply distressing for all of us to hear about the level of organised child exploitation that is going on in our childcare systems.
00:38And I am really very grateful for the very good investigative journalism that has surfaced that.
00:46So that's the first thing I would say is we really need to recognise.
00:50I'm not surprised.
00:51I think one of the things that we need to recognise is that where there are vulnerable children, where there are vulnerable people, people who want to cause harm will actually weaponise and use those systems.
01:04I think that we absolutely are looking at what needs to happen to make childcare centres safe for children.
01:13Children should be, families should be able to be confident that their children are safe in those centres.
01:17I think that there absolutely needs to be greater regulation, greater investment.
01:22We have seen that in other systems where we know that children were vulnerable.
01:27The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse really examined a number of those other institutions.
01:35We haven't had the same level of attention and investment in the childcare system and we need to see that.
01:42Do you think there could be a benefit to a Royal Commission into the childcare system?
01:45I think that Royal Commissions play an incredibly important role in shining a light where there hasn't been a great deal of attention.
01:55I think that we know a lot about what is going on in childcare systems.
01:59What we need to see is action.
02:01Obviously childcare is a matter for the federal government, but it's also a matter for the states.
02:05And you've highlighted in this report that coordination across those jurisdictions has frankly not really been up to scratch.
02:11Does it concern you that that could happen with childcare? Is that something that worries you?
02:15It's something that I am deeply focused on how do we improve coordination and collaboration across all jurisdictions and the Commonwealth's efforts.
02:23And it's why one of our recommendations is that there needs to be a national coordinating body.
02:27I think that it is something that in a federation we really struggle to bring that harmonisation across jurisdictions.
02:35I am very confident that there is very strong attention on how to fix the issue in childcare centres and that we really need to see action about improving that.
02:44You mentioned the rapid review a little bit earlier.
02:46That's over a year now since you handed down that report.
02:49You helped steer that review.
02:50One of the recommendations that you made was for the federal government to implement a ban on gambling advertising.
02:56Are you disappointed that that hasn't happened yet and are you still hopeful that it could?
03:00I'm always hopeful Claudia and I think that's one of the things that's really important in this role is to just keep on reminding all of the leaders and decision makers about the things that will really make a difference in people's lives.
03:16Gambling, alcohol reform I think are two things that we know the evidence very clearly tells us we can do more that will keep people safe.
03:26Michaela Cronin thank you very much for your time.
03:29Thank you Claudia.
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