Overview

• Federal, state and territory ministers agreed to ban personal mobile phones in early learning settings from September and to mandate child‑safety training for all staff starting next year.
• Up to 300 centres will join a nationally coordinated CCTV trial from October or November, with design and evaluation support from the Australian Centre for Child Protection and safeguards to prevent footage becoming a hacking target.
• A National Educator Register will be built by ACECQA, piloted in December and rolled out in stages from February 2026, logging contact details, employment history and regulatory flags such as prohibitions or active investigations, with legislation to compel data sharing.
• Compliance will be stepped up with 1,600 additional commonwealth spot visits and new powers to withdraw subsidies from repeat offenders, with 37 centres already on notice to improve within six months or lose funding.
• Working‑with‑children check bans are now nationally applicable under recent changes while state systems continue to run checks, and the government will boost transparency by publishing centre compliance and inspection details online from next month.