The Nationals’ Member for Mildura, Jade Benham, has condemned the Allan Labor Government’s failure to address serious and ongoing issues within Victoria’s childcare sector, saying children are being placed at risk while families are left in the dark.
Ms Benham said repeated warnings have been ignored and critical safety concerns remain unresolved, with alarming figures revealing a 45 per cent increase in complaints to the state’s childcare regulator since 2018, while enforcement actions have dropped by 67 per cent over the same period.
“This is completely unacceptable. Parents deserve answers, children deserve protection, and Victorians deserve leadership,” Ms Benham said.
“Instead of taking responsibility, Labor is yet again launching another review while refusing to take immediate action.”
In response, The Victorian Nationals and Liberals have put forward a clear six-point plan to deliver urgent and practical reforms aimed at improving safety and restoring trust in early learning settings.
The plan includes:
- Fixing Working With Children Check loopholes by giving assessors the power to act on all relevant information
- Providing parents access to live safety and compliance data for individual centres
- Creating a central register of all early childhood workers to raise workforce standards
- Establishing an independent childcare safety watchdog to investigate, enforce, and report transparently
- Banning personal phones and supporting secure CCTV installation in childcare centres
- Linking federal funding to safety performance, as already done in aged care and schools.
“These are practical measures that can be implemented immediately. We are ready to legislate reforms that put the safety of children first,” Ms Benham said.
“The time for reviews and excuses is over. If Labor won’t act, we will.”
“Labor can’t manage childcare and Victorian families are paying the price.”
