Working with Children Checks - Co-ordination between States and Territories

Question

1. What progress has been made since SCAG agreed to national Working With Children Check reform in February 2026? 2. Which jurisdictions have now implemented the agreed reforms relating to mutual recognition of negative Working With Children Check decisions? 3. Are any jurisdictions behind schedule in implementing the nationally agreed reforms, and if so, which jurisdictions? 4. Has the Attorney-General's Department established implementation deadlines for all reform measures agreed by Attorneys-General? 5. What governance arrangements are in place to oversee implementation of the national Working With Children Check reforms? 6. Has the "banned in one state, banned in all states" principle commenced nationally in practice? 7. How many negative notices, suspensions or interim bars have been shared between jurisdictions since the reforms commenced? 8. Has the Department identified cases where a person refused a Working With Children Check in one jurisdiction later obtained clearance in another jurisdiction? 9. What legislative barriers remain to full national recognition of Working With Children Check exclusions? 10. What work has been undertaken to ensure that adverse Working With Children Check findings are recognised consistently across all jurisdictions? 11. Has the Department considered moving to a single national Working With Children Check scheme instead of interoperable state and territory schemes? 12. What progress has been made toward mutual recognition of valid Working With Children Checks between states and territories? 13. Is the Commonwealth currently able to recognise and rely upon state and territory Working With Children Checks for Commonwealth employment or contracted services? 14. Are Commonwealth agencies currently required to conduct additional screening even where a worker already holds a valid state or territory Working With Children Check? 15. What discussions have occurred between the Commonwealth and the states regarding mutual recognition of Working With Children Checks for Commonwealth-funded programs? 16. Does the Department support a nationally portable Working With Children Check that would allow workers to move between jurisdictions without reapplying? 17. What legal or constitutional barriers exist to achieving full mutual recognition between states, territories and the Commonwealth? 18. How many individuals working on Commonwealth-funded programs currently require multiple Working With Children Checks across jurisdictions? 19. Has the Department undertaken any modelling of the compliance burden caused by duplicate Working With Children Check requirements? 20. [transferred] What progress has been made on development of the National Continuous Checking Capability with the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission? 21. [transferred] Has the pilot for the National Continuous Checking Capability concluded, and what were the findings? 22. [transferred] What is the total projected cost of implementing the National Continuous Checking Capability nationally? 23. Of the previously announced Commonwealth funding for Working With Children Check reform, how much has been spent to date? 24. [transferred] What cybersecurity and privacy protections will apply to the National Continuous Checking Capability? 25. [transferred] Will the continuous checking system provide real-time notifications of criminal charges, convictions or other relevant intelligence? 26. [transferred] What agencies will have direct access to information generated through the continuous checking capability? 27. Are jurisdictions currently applying materially different exclusion criteria or risk assessment standards when assessing Working With Children Checks? 28. Will the reforms establish nationally consistent definitions of "child-related work" and disqualifying conduct? 29. What consultation has occurred with child safety experts, survivor groups and frontline organisations regarding the reforms? 30. What are the major risks to successful implementation of the national Working With Children Check reform agenda, and is the Department confident the current timelines remain achievable?

Answer

Please see attached answer.

Documents

• Question with answer (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• BE26-181.pdf (opens in a new tab)