Bills
Working with Children (Screening) Amendment Bill 2025
Introduction and first reading
Bill introduced, on motion by Mrs Jessica Stojkovski (Minister for Child Protection), and read a first time.
Explanatory memorandum presented by the minister.
Second reading speech
Mrs Jessica Stojkovski (Kingsley—Minister for Child Protection) (11:07 am): I move:
That the bill be now read a second time.
The Working With Children (Screening) Amendment Bill 2025 is a further step in implementing recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and will help keep children safe.
In 2015, the Royal Commission published its Working with Children Checks Report. This report noted the value of state and territory processes for screening people seeking to work with children but found that inconsistencies between jurisdictions, the inability to share information about decisions made on working with children applications and the inability to monitor cardholders left children exposed to risks of harm. Among other things, the report recommended that consistent standards be introduced that apply to all jurisdictions and a centralised database be established to hold information about working with children decisions that would complement access to existing criminal history data.
Since then, the Commonwealth and all states and territories have been working to implement the recommendations. National standards for working with children checks were published in 2019 and broadly endorsed by jurisdictions. The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission established and has been developing the National Reference System (NRS) since 2019. The NRS now holds data on adverse working with children decisions made by all jurisdictions, apart from the Northern Territory, that is working towards including this data.
These developments now make it possible to easily check if a person has been refused the equivalent of a working with children card or had a card cancelled or suspended or had restrictions placed on the person's ability to work with children by another jurisdiction. This establishes the conditions necessary for mutual recognition.
In August 2025, the Standing Council of Attorneys-General (SCAG) agreed to mutually recognise decisions by state and territory regulators that prohibit an unsuitable person from working with children as a matter of urgency. In Western Australia, initial reforms to the Working with Children (Screening) Act 2004 commenced in July 2023, and consultation on further reforms to complete implementation of the royal commission's recommendations concluded in September 2025.
This bill, in accord with agreement from the SCAG, expedites amendments that will recognise adverse interstate working with children decisions, remove barriers to sharing information about adverse working with children decisions and enable continuous checking of the national reference system (NRS) to ensure Western Australians working with children card holders remain fit to work with children.
To recognise interstate working with children decisions, the bill defines new terms that capture a range of outcomes that can occur. WA issues a negative notice if a person is assessed as an unacceptable risk of harm to children. A corresponding notice, condition or exclusion, however called, that prohibits a person from child-related work is defined as an "interstate negative notice". An interstate working with children authority is an authority decision or registration, however called, that corresponds to a WA assessment notice and the issue of a working with children card that permits a person to carry out child-related work. An interstate working with children check application is an application, however called, made under a corresponding law for an interstate working with children authority.
The new term "adverse interstate working with children decision" captures negative decisions made under a corresponding law, both final and interim, that have an effect of prohibiting a person from carrying out child-related work. This includes interstate negative notices, refusal or cancellation of an interstate working with children authority and temporary suspensions or interim bars. Some jurisdictions allow a person to work with children subject to conditions on their working with children authority. For example, a condition may be that the person is to be supervised while working with children. WA does not issue conditional working with children cards. The bill includes any conditional interstate working with children authority as an adverse interstate working with children decision, and the person will be prohibited from carrying out child-related work in WA. This position aligns with the royal commission's recommendation and the national standards that there should be no conditional clearances.
The bill defines when a person is the subject of an adverse interstate working with children decision in order to determine when the amendments are to apply. Broadly, a person is the subject of an adverse interstate working with children decision if the decision has not been overturned on a review or appeal, or the decision has not otherwise stopped having effect. A decision may stop having effect because the corresponding authority has granted an interstate working with children authority or an interstate negative notice has been revoked and the interstate working with children authority has had conditions removed. The term "cancelled" is defined in relation to an interstate working with children authority to avoid capturing circumstances in which a person is not prohibited from child-related work—for example, when a person voluntarily surrenders their interstate working with children authority.
To ensure WA decision-makers can make use of all available information about an applicant for a working with children card, the bill requires the CEO to check the NRS as part of every application to establish whether the person is subject of an adverse interstate working with children decision. A new provision also provides for the CEO to access the NRS on a regular and ongoing basis to check whether specified persons are the subject of an adverse interstate working with children decision. As well as applicants, this will include persons with current working with children cards and persons subject to reassessment or review or appeal proceedings.
This bill includes a range of amendments to alter WA's process once the CEO becomes aware of an adverse interstate working with children decision. The effect in most cases is that WA processes cease and the decision by the interstate regulatory authority applies in WA. If a person is applying for a working with children card or holds a current card, the CEO is required to withdraw the application or cancel the current card and issue written notice to the person advising of the withdrawal or the cancellation and that the decision is due to a current adverse interstate working with children decision. If the CEO is aware that the applicant or person is, or is proposed to be, employed in child-related work, a written notice must also be given to the employer giving certain information. If the person is a student, a written notice will be given to the education provider.
In some cases, an applicant or cardholder is issued with an interim negative notice that prohibits the person from carrying out child-related work while an assessment is underway. This can occur when the CEO becomes aware of certain criminal charges or convictions, some other change in criminal record findings or outcomes of conduct reviews, or that the decision to issue a working with children card was based on wrong or incomplete information.
In cases in which an interim negative notice has been issued to a person and is current, and the CEO becomes aware that that person is subject of an adverse interstate working with children decision, there is a departure from ceasing a WA assessment and recognising the interstate decision. In these cases, the CEO is to continue an assessment. If the decision is that a negative notice should be issued, then it is issued. If the decision is that an assessment notice should be issued, the CEO must cancel the interim negative notice but must not issue a working with children card to the person. A written notice must be given to the person advising of the cancellation of the interim negative notice and that the working with children card will not be issued due to the adverse interstate working with children decision. Written notice will also be given to a prospective employer or education provider as applicable.
Withdrawing pending applications and cancelling current working with children's cards when a person is found to have had an adverse interstate working with children decision will help to minimise instances in which a person may end up with a negative notice in multiple jurisdictions, each requiring an application to cancel before they can work in any jurisdiction.
Continuing an assessment while an interim negative notice has been issued is a stronger protection for WA children, as the interim negative notice means that the circumstances indicate the person is a sufficient risk to children that they are likely to be issued a negative notice once an assessment is complete.
Issuing a negative notice when an assessment has been completed and a person has been found to be an unacceptable risk to children in child-related work ensures that such a person is unable to enter child-related work in Western Australia regardless of whether their adverse interstate working with children decision has been cancelled or ceased to apply. A negative notice can be reviewed in certain circumstances.
If the CEO decides to cancel a current negative notice and a working with children card may be or is required to be issued, and the CEO is aware that that person is the subject of an adverse interstate working with children's decision, the bill provides that the CEO must not issue the working with children card.
The bill introduces new offences for an employer or education provider to employ or procure child-related. employment when they are aware the person is the subject of an adverse interstate working with children decision. The penalties will be the same as the offence when an employer or education provider is aware that the person has been issued with a current negative notice or an interim negative notice. An existing offence will be used if a person subject to a current adverse interstate working with children decision engages in child-related work in WA.
The bill also provides that a person who is subject of an adverse interstate working with children decision cannot have access to statutory defences for a charge of engaging in child-related work without a working with children card. Transitional provisions that provide amendments will apply to all pending applications or persons with a current working with children card on commencement day, whether the application was made or the card issued before, on or after the commencement day.
The amendments proposed in this bill to mutually recognise adverse interstate working with children decisions will contribute to national consistency in dealing with potentially harmful people and so reduce their ability to gain access to children.
I commend the bill to the house.
Debate adjourned, on motion by Mr Liam Staltari.
