Published Yesterday at 04:25 PM

JOINT STATEMENT

Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Minister for Integrity
The Honourable Deb Frecklington

Minister for Education and the Arts
The Honourable John-Paul Langbroek

Minister for Families, Seniors and Disability Services and Minister for Child Safety and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence
The Honourable Amanda Camm

Crisafulli Government prioritises early childhood under protection scheme

  • Early childhood education and care services to be included in first phase of commencement for Queensland's the new Reportable Conduct Scheme.  
  • From 1 July 2026, early childhood organisations will be required to report concerning conduct regarding staff and volunteers who work with children.
  • Under Labor, the scheme would not have applied to the early childhood sector until mid-2027. 

The Crisafulli Government is delivering the strongest child protection system in the nation to help keep Queensland children safe by fast-tracking requirements for the early childhood sector to investigate and report suspicious conduct to deliver stronger protections for Queensland children. 

The Reportable Conduct Scheme – a recommendation of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse back in 2017 – is due to commence from 1 July 2026, with implementation over three stages from mid-2026 to mid-2027. 

After failing to act for seven years, the former Labor Government planned to leave early childhood education, care and child-minding services to be the last sector to be included in the scheme.  

The Crisafulli Government is accelerating these timeframes to require the early childhood sector to comply with the Reportable Conduct Scheme as soon as possible, from 1 July 2026, and boost protection for Queensland children.

Amendments will be brought to the Queensland Parliament in coming months to give effect to this change.  

The scheme requires organisations to report and investigate concerns regarding the conduct of staff and volunteers in relation to their work with children.  

Reportable conduct ranges from ill-treatment or significant neglect of a child, through to physical harm and sexual offences. 

Where there are concerns the alleged conduct may constitute a criminal offence, the organisation must also promptly report the matter to the police. 

The scheme will prioritise the safety and wellbeing of children by holding organisations accountable when concerns are raised regarding the behaviour of their employees, contractors, or volunteers.  

Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Minister for Integrity Deb Frecklington said the changes would deliver the protections needed to keep young Queensland children safe.

“We are acting now, based on interim findings in our Blue Card Review, and we’ll continue to deliver the strongest protections in the nation for children,” the Attorney-General said.

“All options are on the table and we’ll be looking closely at the recommendations from both the Blue Card review and the Child Safety Commission of Inquiry.

“We have long held concerns about the failures of the Blue Card system under the former Labor Government, which is why we acted on launching the Review within our first 100 days in office.”

Minister for Education John-Paul Langbroek said the Crisafulli Government had delivered an additional $12.7 million for Queensland’s Regulatory Authority in the 2025-26 Budget, which Labor had failed to fund past June 2025.  

“The safety of kids is our utmost priority at all times and that’s why we’ve bolstered the Regulatory Authority with more officers to conduct more checks on more early childcare centres,” Minister Langbroek said. 

“Fast-tracking requirements through the Reportable Conduct Scheme will deliver stronger protections for children and it works hand-in-hand with our recent announcement to implement nation-leading child safety training for all early childcare workers. 

“We have to get this right and we will be working closely with the sector to ensure all the measures are successfully implemented to deliver real long-term safety improvements.”  

Minister for Child Safety Amanda Camm said parents should feel their children are safe from predators and other dangers when dropping them off at day care. 

“The Crisafulli Government is committed to child safe organisations and advancing the commencement of the Reportable Conduct Scheme for early child care centres as a priority to further protect children,” Minister Camm said. 

Child Death Review Board Chairperson, Commissioner Luke Twyford said he supported the Crisafulli Government’s decision to bring forward the application of the reportable conduct scheme for the early childhood sector. 

“The Reportable Conduct Scheme will give Queenslanders a place to report worrying behaviour that does not meet criminal thresholds and will allow me, as the head of the scheme, to share this information with Blue card services, industry regulators and the police,” Commissioner Twyford said.  

“This is a significant and critical improvement to the safeguards we have in place to protect Queensland's children. While there is work to do to implement new reporting systems and train staff, I can see no reason to delay the application of this new protection to the early child care sector for an additional year.”  

The Child Death Review Board will make further recommendations to improve system responses to child sexual abuse in its final report, due to Government by the end of this year. 

ENDS 

MEDIA CONTACT:  Molly Snaylam, 0448 320 555