Legislation to establish a public child sex offender register will be introduced into Queensland Parliament this week, days after a national register to track childcare workers was announced.
State Premier David Crisafulli said Daniel’s Law would help parents access the information needed to make decisions for the safety of their children.
Premier Crisafulli said the law would establish the Queensland Community Protection and Public Child Sex Offender Register and would consist of three tiers, in a multi-layered approach to child protection.
He said the three tiers included:
- A publicly available website with photographs and personal details of reportable offenders who have failed to comply with their reporting obligations and whose whereabouts are unknown.
- A locality search application providing photographs to identify certain reportable offenders living in the local area.
- A parent and guardian application. Parents, carers and guardians will be able to apply to police to ascertain whether an adult having regular unsupervised contact with their child is a current reportable offender.
“Daniel’s Law is in recognition of Daniel Morcombe whose life was lost through tragedy, following more than two decades of advocacy from his parents, and through the Daniel Morcombe Foundation.”
Premier Crisafulli said safeguards would be in place to prevent the misuse of information, while unlocking information for parents and carers to help bolster child protection.
He said the Queensland Community Protection and Public Child Sex Offender Register would be administered by the Queensland Police Service, which was already responsible for monitoring reportable offenders.
The announcement came days after Queensland endorsed a national reform package to keep children safe in early childhood.
Speaking at the meeting of State and Territory Education Ministers last week, Queensland Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said the reforms were a result of extensive public consultation and would address critical areas of child safety, including digital device use, staff conduct, and mandatory child safety training.
Speaking at the meeting of State and Territory Education Ministers, Minister for Education John-Paul Langbroek said the reforms were a result of extensive public consultation and would address critical areas of child safety, including digital device use, staff conduct, and mandatory child safety training.
Minister Langbroek said a national register established to track childcare workers across the sector would be established as well as a trial of CCTV cameras in childcare undertaken in addition to mandatory child safety training.
He said additional support for these reforms from the Queensland Government included:
- A $3.7 million boost to continue to deliver protective behaviours education, empowering children and families to stay safe in Queensland.
- $12.7m over four years for an additional 29 full-time early childhood regulatory officers to focus on compliance and enforcement activities.
- $20m for Queensland’s early childhood workforce strategy to address challenges particularly in attracting, developing and retaining a highly skilled workforce.
- Partnering with the Australian Centre for Child Protection to develop the nation’s first formal child safety training package for all early childhood staff on behalf of all states and territories.
“Queensland welcomes the additional agreed national actions to further strengthen child safety and quality including a CCTV assessment and National Early Childhood Educator register,” he said.
“Queensland has proudly spearheaded the push for a National Register and these reforms reflect our commitment to making Queensland a leader in child safety across all early childhood settings.”
