“Can you explain how a worker studying towards a qualification can be left alone with babies?” Greens deputy leader Steph Hodgins-May asked.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/c93aa8e4f832b499108c95da7679b3c1.jpeg\")
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Steph Hodgins-May questioned how Edwina Ling could be left alone with babies before she had finished her childcare qualification. (ABC News: Adam Kennedy)<\/p>\n
Senator Walsh said state ministers had ordered a review of how the “working towards” rules applied and in what circumstances. She said an update would be provided next week.<\/p>\n
“We have asked for a review into how working towards qualifications applies and in the circumstances where it may apply. That review is underway. We will be updated on it at the next education ministers meeting, and it’s an important part of the work,” Senator Walsh said.<\/p>\n
“That service [Injinoo] has responsibilities to ensure that child was adequately supervised and that child was clearly not adequately supervised.”<\/p>\n
Childcare worker’s violence captured on CCTV<\/a><\/p>\n Behind the doors of a small childcare centre, a worker went on a violent spree. Parents are still searching for answers.<\/p>\n Senator Walsh said there was also broader work underway on adequate supervision in early childhood services.<\/p>\n She told the committee CCTV would be discussed at next week’s meeting of education ministers following a trial involving 300 services.<\/p>\n CCTV proved critical in the Injinoo case. Ling originally denied hurting the children and told parents it was another child responsible for the cuts and bruises, but when she was told the footage showed it was her, she pleaded guilty to 82 assaults.<\/p>\n Read more about Australia’s childcare crisis<\/a><\/p>\n Explore the ABC’s investigation into Australia’s childcare sector, revealing what goes on behind closed doors.<\/p>\n Senator Hodgins-May pressed Senator Walsh on the government’s new funding enforcement powers, asking why Little Zak’s Academy and Only About Children remain absent from the Commonwealth’s enforcement list<\/a> despite significant compliance histories.<\/p>\n “What does a large provider actually have to do before the Commonwealth intervenes?” she said, pointing to 25 staff ratio breaches last year.<\/p>\n Analysis of the country’s 26 largest long-daycare providers found that half of Little Zak’s centres had enforcement action in the past two years, the highest proportion of the 26 largest providers analysed.<\/p>\n For Only About Children, another big for-profit provider, the figure was 27 per cent, or one in four.<\/p>\n Matt O\u2019Sullivan said governments needed to rebuild trust in child care. (ABC News: Adam Kennedy)<\/p>\n Liberal senator and Shadow Childcare Minister Matt O’Sullivan said there had been a “massive distrust and breakdown” in confidence in the child care sector and governments needed to do everything possible to rebuild that trust.<\/p>\n Ling was jailed in June for four years with a one-year non-parole period.<\/p>\n Queensland District Court Judge Dean Morzone KC described her offending as “monstrous, cruel and sadistic” and “a gross breach of trust”.<\/p>\n The Injinoo Child Care Centre was closed after losing funding.<\/p>\n Do you know more?Contact Adele Ferguson using\u00a0ferguson.adele@abc.net.au<\/a>If you require more secure communication, please choose an\u00a0option on the confidential tips page<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A proposed national childcare commission will be discussed at a meeting of education ministers next week, as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":945009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[27358,64,63,14001,10947,99179,346298,14839,509019,253850,44,124130],"class_list":["post-945008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-abcinvestigations","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-child-care","tag-childcare","tag-childcare-abuse","tag-edwina-ling","tag-four-corners","tag-injinoo","tag-jess-walsh","tag-news","tag-senate-estimates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=945008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/945009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bdbe6254236f2c81042153937064081f.jpeg\")
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