Kurrajong independent MLA Thomas Emerson had hoped to receive many more documents related to the early childhood education sector. Photo: Thomas Lucraft.
A Canberra mother whose son was abused by a childcare worker has condemned the ACT Government’s decision to narrow the scope of documents it will produce relating to serious incidents in the early childhood education sector.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr stated the order was costing the Territory $74,000 per fortnight to work through, with 18 to 20 full-time equivalent public servants assigned to the task.
He requested the order’s scope be narrowed to exclude a range of documents – including police evidence and statements, incident reports, family violence or family court orders, attendance records, documents related to active investigations, and correspondence between complainants and the Children’s Education and Care Assurance (CECA) regulator – and for the timeframe to be extended to December.
“By reducing the scope to those documents relevant to the Assembly’s interests, we can divert staff back to the important roles they play in our public service every day as quickly as possible – supporting our community and taking care of our children,” Mr Barr wrote in a letter to the Assembly.
The original motion had been moved by Kurrajong independent MLA Thomas Emerson, who was happy to reduce some of its scope.
But he still wanted provider internal investigation documents, provider policy/procedures and internal incident/injury/illness records to be produced.
“My concern is that supporting the Chief Minister’s proposed reduced scope unamended completely undermines the purpose of the motion,” Mr Emerson said.
He argued he wanted to find out if the regulator was working effectively in “keeping our children safe”, and that providing final compliance notices without being able to compare that with internal provider investigations would make it difficult to “figure out what’s going on with poorer providers”.
“Reducing the evidence used [by the regulator] to make these decisions, removing that from the public record, is not helpful,” Mr Emerson argued.
He also wanted the timeframe to only be extended to 25 November.
The ACT Government disagreed, with Government Services Minister Tara Cheyne stating “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”, describing Mr Emerson’s motion as an “info-grab”.
“This is ridiculous … there’s nothing untoward about what the Chief Minister has put forward,” she said.
“We are trying to do what we can with what we’ve got.”
She accused Mr Emerson of producing “probably not a well-thought-out request in the first place”, and she said she was “gobsmacked” by the crossbench and Opposition’s recent requests for documents that she questioned would be fully read anyway.
“This is just perverse … if this Assembly wants to set this precedent … the people who suffer are our constituents,” Ms Cheyne said.
Education and Early Childhood Minister Yvette Berry said the documents were “causing trauma” to the public servants examining them and that people in the sector were becoming “worried” about reporting alleged incidents at centres.
“Educators are scared and they are leaving the sector … trust has been eroded in the sector because of the question that’s been asked in this Assembly,” she said.
ACT Labor and the Canberra Liberals voted through Mr Barr’s amendments to Mr Emerson’s original motion.
In the wake of the result, Mr Emerson hit back at the suggestion that trust in the sector had been eroded because of his push for transparency.
“I appreciate the concerns raised about the diversion of public resources and the impact of this work on public servants. But we’re talking about the safety of children here, and we only have to look interstate to see why this allocation of resources is justified,” he said.
“The reality is that trust in the sector has been eroded across the country because of regulatory failure. The only way to rectify that is with greater transparency, scrutiny and accountability.”
A Canberra mother, whose identity Region has chosen not to disclose, has also expressed her concerns about how the debate unfolded.
Former childcare worker Muhammed Ali was found guilty of abusing her child at a centre, along with another boy. Ali was acquitted of abusing a third child.
She said the narrowing of the documents requested by Mr Emerson revealed a “disturbing disregard” for transparency and accountability.
“If we want to put a stop to paedophiles working in childcare centres and incidents happening to our children, we must have access to these documents,” the mother said.
“Withholding these documents undermines efforts to create a safer, more accountable early childhood sector. Things need to change.
“How are parents meant to trust a system that hides the truth? On behalf of the parents of Canberra, we want transparency and honesty, not more lies, because our kids’ safety depends on it.”
The government has committed to updating the Education Directorate website to display information on conditions imposed on centres by the regulator from this month, and to show compliance breaches and enforcement actions issued from November.
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