Punishment without prevention will not work

NSW's Children (Education and Care Services National Law Application) Amendment Bill 2025 was passed by the NSW Parliament on 22 October 2025. And the acting NSW Minister for Education and Early Learning (the Hon Courtney Houssos MLC) referred to it as nation-leading child safety reforms of more than 30 changes to the National Law (for NSW), including:

• increases in maximum penalties (ranging from up to 300%-900% increases);

• new powers for the NSW Regulatory Authority to publish more information about high-risk services, including details of current investigations; and

• extending the limitation period for offences to be prosecuted.

In light of the child safety failures, governments would be negligent if they did not address existing punishments as being potentially ineffective in achieving the required compliance and/or expected prevention.

ACA NSW has consistently stated that the Bill is just the first step while advocating for more comprehensive reforms in order to restore/achieve the full potential early childhood education and care and thus enabling all children to have the best start in life.

But it must be acknowledged that everyone wants child safety failures to be prevented in the first place, rather than exact punishment after. No child should become statistics of such.

Unfortunately, ACA NSW remains concerned that the NSW Government may rely on their abovementioned Bill and their anticipated new NSW Regulatory Authority while not fully addressing all outstanding issues. For example:

• the unbelievable level of breaches/non-compliances despite 92% of NSW-based services rated Meeting the National Quality Standards or higher;

• the disconnection between risk and quality ratings (eg Exceeding rated services regarded as High Risk or Very High Risk);
  

• the reliability of the Working With Children Checks; and

• the new protections are for some whistleblowers and not yet all.

The NSW Government and the NSW Department of Education should not solely rely on the new punitive penalties and powers (at the expense of prevention measures). And ACA NSW and the sector have continued to be ready and willing to collaborate with the NSW Department of Education.

That said, the NSW Regulatory Authority is exercising its existing powers and will soon have additional powers to compel services to send the non-compliance notices and/or enforcement actions to their parents and families.

It will therefore be in every NSW-based services' self-interest to have a complete set of their own compliance and regulatory history so as to be able to provide the complete context.

Having the full set of compliance and regulatory history can also afford Approved Providers the ability to ensure accountability and fairness of the NSW Regulatory Authority's actions under Administrative Law via the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT).

Sadly, it has been confirmed that the NQAITS portal does not provide Approved Providers with their respective services' complete compliance history. Approved Providers' complete access can only be achieved under the NSW Department of Education's Right to Access - Agency Information. The application fee is $30.

ACA NSW and the sector are keen for the NSW Government to articulate how the (future) new and independent NSW Regulatory Authority will be demonstrably more beneficial for the children, parents, the public and the services.

For more information/clarification/assistance, members can contact the ACA NSW team via 1300 556 330 or nsw@childcarealliance.org.au.

PUBLISHED: 24 OCTOBER 2025