Children’s commissioner calls for cabinet minister for children

The children's commissioner says allegations of misconduct by childcare workers are just the tip of the iceberg.

Transcript

00:00Child safety and wellbeing has not had the priority that other issues have had.

00:08For example, there are good reasons why we have cabinet ministers for women.

00:14There are good reasons why women and women's safety is a priority for national cabinet.

00:20And we get women's budget statements every year.

00:22We have none of these accountability mechanisms for children.

00:27And that helps to explain, I think, why decades of recommendations from royal commissions

00:32and inquiries have not been acted on yet.

00:36I don't have the power to fix this, but what I try and do is raise the issues.

00:41For example, those evidence-based recommendations from decades ago raised them with governments

00:48repeatedly and asking for that accountability for action.

00:53But unless we have a point of accountability, unless we have a cabinet minister for children,

00:58unless child safety and wellbeing actually is a priority at national cabinet, it's very

01:03limited what anyone can do to achieve the changes that we need that will help us all to feel

01:10more confident that we've got the right things in place to protect our children, particularly

01:15the most vulnerable children.