Federal government to introduce legislation to improve childcare standards

The federal government is considering further measures to improve childcare standards across the country.

Transcript

00:00What the government wants to do is essentially tie child care funding to safety outcomes.

00:07This is what the government sees as basically its strongest lever to pull because child

00:12care is largely regulated at a state and territory level but it's largely funded at a federal

00:18level through the child care subsidy.

00:20This is the sliding scale of discounts that most families who have children in child care

00:25receive.

00:26The government says that child care centres should be meeting safety outcomes, safety

00:31standards, looking at the national quality standards that are in place right across the

00:35country.

00:36These are standards applied to child care centres around things like education, around things

00:41like cleanliness and the food that's provided to children but also on safety issues as well.

00:46The government says if child care centres are continually failing to meet those standards,

00:52they should have their funding withheld.

00:54So this legislation will strengthen the government's power to do precisely that.

00:59But the government is also looking at further measures that will have to work with the states

01:03and territories on.

01:04There's meetings planned next month between education ministers and also attorneys general

01:08to talk about things like CCTV in child care centres, nationalising working with children's

01:14checks and also creating a national register of child care workers to track those who are

01:19continually moving between centres.

01:22Let's hear now from the Education Minister, Jason Clare and also the Opposition Leader,

01:26Susan Lee.

01:27The regulators have the power to shut a centre right now if they think there's a serious threat

01:31to children's safety.

01:33But this will also give us the power to issue a show cause notice to a centre to say that

01:37we'll shut it within 28 days unless they meet that minimum standard or to set conditions

01:42on them as well.

01:44And we'll work closely with the state regulators who do the work in checking centres to identify

01:49the centres that should be the subject of this legislation first.

01:53I do want to be constructive.

01:54But that being constructive doesn't mean giving the government a blank check when it comes

01:59to goodwill on this issue.

02:01We have to make sure that the legislation works.