Annual child safety statement of compliance 2026

The department is committed to promoting and maintaining a culture that provides for the safety and wellbeing of children, young people and vulnerable people.

We focus on maintaining a safe, respectful, welcoming and inclusive environment that ensures that children are supported and respected, and their rights, needs and interests met.

The department is committed to protecting and safeguarding children by:

• creating policies and procedures to protect children
• ensuring our employees are aware of child safety policies and procedures
• ensuring our employees comply with child safety policies and procedures
• creating conditions that reduce the likelihood of harm to children
• undertaking and reviewing child safety related risk assessments
• responding to and managing child safety incidents, allegations and complaints effectively
• complying with the Commonwealth Child Safe Framework
• adopting and implementing, where applicable, the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.

As part of our commitment, the department:

• maintains a Child Safe and Vulnerable People Policy, which details the responsibilities and obligations of all department employees, including contractors and volunteers, to ensure child safe practices are in place when interacting with children, young people and vulnerable people.
• carries out annual child safety risk assessments to evaluate the risk of harm to children and implement strategies to mitigate those risks.
• ensures any employees who interact with children hold a current Working with Vulnerable People (WWVP) and/or Working with Children Check (WWCC) and complete mandatory child safety training annually.

The department carries out an annual governance activity to understand the scope of departmental activities that either directly or indirectly involve children.

In 2026, the department confirmed that the Australian Space Agency (ASA), primarily through the Australian Space Discovery Centre (ASDC), and Questacon either directly or indirectly interact with children and young people. We note that the ASDC and Questacon:

• are educational facilities regularly visited by children, young people and adults
• deliver or participate in school, educational and outreach activities, events and exhibitions
• engage with children and young people through in-person and, where applicable, virtual environments.

The department completes an annual corporate child safety risk assessment review. This incorporates divisional child safety risk assessments from the Australian Space Agency and Questacon. We reviewed and updated all risk assessments in September and October 2026.

The corporate risk assessment determined that the department's overall residual child safety risk is minor and within tolerance, with controls and treatment actions in place to manage identified risks. This reflects:

• the department’s lower-risk nature interactions with children, which occur in public or supervised environments with parents, guardians, teachers or other responsible adults present
• the range of corporate and divisional robust risk mitigations in place to support child safety, including screening, training, supervision, incident reporting and escalation, and divisional risk management and assurance arrangements.

The department continues to strengthen its child safety arrangements and implement treatment actions in alignment with the Commonwealth Child Safe Framework.

The department complies with the 4 requirements under the framework:

1. Undertake risk assessments annually in relation to activities of the entity, to identify the level of responsibility for, and contact with, children, evaluate risks to child safety, and put in place appropriate strategies to manage identified risks.
2. Establish and maintain a system of training and compliance, to make staff aware of, and comply with, the Framework and relevant legislation, including Working with Children Checks (WWCCs)/Working with Vulnerable People (WWVP) Checks and mandatory reporting requirements.
3. Adopt and implement the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.
4. Publish an annual statement of compliance with the framework, including an overview of the entity’s child safety risk assessment (conducted under Requirement 1). 

The department is committed to ongoing improvements in safety through implementation of the framework. Over the last 12 months, the department has carried out a range of improvements, including, but not limited to:

• incorporating the new Commonwealth Child Safety Framework eLearning modules in our child safety training offering
• enhancing the department's online work health and safety (WHS) incident management system with a dedicated child safety report type to make it easier to report and effectively manage child safety incidents
• strengthening annual assurance arrangements for areas of the department that work with children and young people.

Over the next 12 months, our key focus areas will be strengthening child safety capability, governance and assurance. This will include further strengthening child safety learning and workforce capability to recognise, report and respond to child safety concerns, and enhancing oversight of divisional child safety controls and treatment actions.