Overview

• Premier Jacinta Allan accepted all 22 recommendations, pledging an independent Early Childhood Education and Care Regulator by end‑2025, at least one unannounced inspection per service each year, and mandatory online child‑safety training for Working With Children Check applicants.
• The review by Jay Weatherill and Pamela White found fragmented oversight, poor information sharing and underfunding, urging a single database to aggregate red flags and allowing WWCC suspensions or refusals on credible patterns of concerning behaviour.
• The Victorian government will introduce legislation next week to enable immediate suspension of WWCCs when a person is under police investigation, while pressing for tougher penalties and national reforms including a worker register and a CCTV trial.
• Western Australia moved separately to ban personal devices in childcare centres and allocated $1.1 million to boost regulator compliance checks after a snap review identified rising breaches.
• Goodstart Early Learning said it sacked a Ballarat‑region centre director for failing to report allegations, as former educators alleged they were told not to discuss investigations; the company says it followed police directions, and federal authorities named 29 services nationally for funding conditions under new compliance powers.