October 30, 2018 Minister McGurk needs to step up to protect children Shadow Minister for Community Services Alyssa Hayden has called on the McGowan Government to strengthen the powers of the Department of Communities to deal with childcare providers who continually breach the terms of their licence. The call comes after provider Camp Australia was fined $210,000 for keeping two sets of books to cover up the fact it was caring for more children than its licence allowed. The fine comes after seven earlier safety breaches by Camp Australia. Mrs Hayden said while she welcomed the latest action it was unacceptable for any child care operator to continue to flout its responsibilities. “We have strict regulations in place for the protection of our children for good reason; children are vulnerable and require the strictest support and supervision,” Mrs Hayden said. “These regulations are there to give parents confidence in the care their child is receiving, if a provider continually ignores its licence conditions that confidence is severely eroded. “How many breaches should a provider be able to get away with before their licence to operate is revoked? Mrs Hayden said the continued breaches were appalling and indicated that Camp Australia could continually get away with ignoring the terms of its licence. “Obviously financial punishments aren’t having an effect; maybe the threat of losing their licence might by the incentive needed to make them take their responsibility more seriously,” Mrs Hayden said. “Given the standing and size of this provider, the number of children they have in their care and that this is the seventh breach, it’s difficult to have confidence it will adhere to its licence conditions going forward. “I call on Community Services Minister Simone McGurk to protect our children by strengthening the powers of the department with a strict safety compliance policy that has a breach limit beyond which a provider’s licence can be revoked. “I expect the Minister to act now on this latest breach.” Ends |
