One of the most significant advancements in Australia's child protection system in decades, August 2025 saw the AG's office agree to implement mutual recognition of negative Working With Children Check (WWCC) outcomes by the end of 2025.
The centrepiece of these reforms is profoundly important and closes a gap that has previously been exploited by predators for years: mutual national recognition of negative WWCC decisions.
Practically, this means that a person rejected or flagged for a WWCC in one jurisdiction will be rejected in other jurisdictions across Australia. Banned in one state, banned in all.
This addresses a critical loophole that has existed in Australia's fragmented child protection system for years.
With millions of individuals holding Working With Children Checks around Australia, and each state subject to a bespoke scheme & register, systems currently don't talk to each other. This fragmentation has allowed individuals to exploit gaps by moving between jurisdictions after being denied clearance or flagged in another state.
Mutual Recognition of Negative Notices (by the end of 2025): linking up state & territory systems to recognise cross-jurisdictional decisions against WWCC applicants or holders. Closing the loophole that currently enables predators to move across borders and seek further employment.
National Continuous Checking Capability (pilot from late 2025): provide continuous, near-real time monitoring of changes to criminal history and information of WWCC holders. The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) already has a pilot underway.
Stronger WWCC assessment frameworks to improve consistency and strengthening the quality of the WWCC assessment frameworks, meaning better checks and increased safeguards in place around WWCC holders and child safety.
These reforms follow a series of deeply troubling cases in the childcare sector that have exposed fundamental weaknesses across the entire system.
Banned in one, banned in all represents a monumental step towards a safer childcare sector, with greater barriers in place to close the existing loopholes.
A national continuous checking capability will also increase the flow of information between state & federal systems relating to criminal history, meaning Working with Children Check information is more reliable for employers to rely on.
The reforms are designed to work alongside existing federal and state measures, including announcements from federal Education Minister Jason Clare on stripping funding from childcare centre that fail to meet compliance standards.
Service providers should prepare for:
While the AG's reforms represent a significant step forward in how governments monitor and share information about WWCC holders, they also highlight a critical gap: how do employers access and act on this enhanced information in real time?
The NCCC will create near real-time monitoring of WWCC holders against criminal history databases, a powerful tool closing dangerous gaps, but continuous checking within government systems is only half of the equation.
The other half is ensuring that when the system detects a problem, employers can access information in a timely manner and take action.
Read more about the AG's reforms: https://ministers.ag.gov.au/media-centre/delivering-urgent-reform-working-children-checks-15-08-2025
Oho provides continuous verification, monitoring and notification of right-to-work compliance checks for the care and community sector, including Working With Children Checks across all Australian jurisdictions.
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