National criminal history tracker to be established for working with children checks

A national system to continuously monitor the criminal history of those with a working with children check will be established, but there will not be a deadline for states and territories to sign up to it.

The pilot of the National Continuous Checking Capability (NCCC) will receive $37 million from the federal government over the next five years, more than a decade after the royal commission into child sexual abuse called for such a system.

While the commonwealth will foot the bill for the NCCC, states and territories will be responsible for funding changes to their own systems that will need to be connected to it.

The pilot program will be ready for states and territories to join by the end of the year, with attorneys-general meeting in Brisbane today.

Successive governments did not follow royal commission recommendation

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse released a standalone report into working with children checks in August 2015.

It drew particular attention to inconsistencies in regulation between jurisdictions, a lack of communication between the states and territories and recommended a national system to track criminal histories of those with a check.

"These problems are not new and have been recognised by governments for some time," the commissioners said at the time.

"We believe that the absence of any action to fix these problems is a significant and inexcusable failure on the part of governments — these problems cannot continue to be ignored."

More than 10 years later, their recommendation is now on track to be realised.

Federal Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said the new trial will lead to consistency across the country about who is suitable to hold a working with children check.

"This addresses existing gaps and inconsistencies and will improve protections for children and young people," she said.

Ms Rowland said the new system represents a significant step towards timely monitoring of those with a working with children check.

"This system will provide continuous, near real-time monitoring of changes to criminal history information for WWCC holders, significantly strengthening safeguards for children and young people."

Three jurisdictions yet to recognise interstate rulings against checks

Since the last meeting of attorneys-general in August, five states now recognise interstate decisions against those applying for or holding a working with children check: New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania.

A key concern of the 2015 royal commission report into working with children checks was "forum shopping", where a person with adverse records in one jurisdiction could get clearance elsewhere because those records are not available interstate.

The ACT, Northern Territory and Western Australia have committed to putting forward legislation to close that loophole by the end of the year.

The changes come as federal, state and territory governments remain under pressure to better safeguard kids in child care.

In October, a Four Corners investigation exposed how paedophiles have infiltrated Australia's childcare system by exploiting lax regulation, piecemeal oversight and staffing inadequacies.

The ABC has made repeated requests for an interview on the issue to Minister for Early Childhood Education Jess Walsh.