Commissioner for Victims’ Rights …

AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

Commissioner for Victims’ Rights Michael O’Connell wants stringent checks on people who work with children

CHECKS on people who work with children should extend to door-knocking their neighbours if necessary, Commissioner for Victims’ Rights Michael O’Connell says.

In a submission to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, he also warns that to avoid having a “checklist of empty promises”, any requirements that come out of the commission must be properly implemented.

“For example, if a child-care centre is required to have two people present when changing a child’s clothes/nappy the centre must be adequately resourced to ensure they have sufficient staff to meet this requirement,” he writes.

TELL US: Would you support such measures?

Asked whether he thought there should be two people present for nappy changes, he said there were situations with adults where the law required a third person to be present – such as a police investigation of a sexual crime.

“It seems to me we owe no lesser obligation to young, vulnerable children,” he said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.