Child care sector faces further changes after shocking abuse exposed

A proposed national childcare commission will be discussed at a meeting of education ministers next week, as the government faces renewed calls for changes following a Four Corners investigation into Australia's child care system.

Early Childhood Education Minister Jess Walsh told Senate estimates the commission could provide greater national oversight and strategic planning for the $20 billion sector, amid an oversupply of centres in some areas and shortages in others.

"We think a commission could assist with better strategic planning," she said.

Senator Walsh was also grilled about gaps in supervision rules, including why workers who have not completed their qualifications could be left alone with babies.

The questions follow Four Corners exposing shocking CCTV footage of a 13-month-old boy being smothered, kicked, hit and shaken 55 times by a trainee childcare worker, Edwina Ling, inside a Far North Queensland centre.

"Can you explain how a worker studying towards a qualification can be left alone with babies?" Greens deputy leader Steph Hodgins-May asked.

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.

"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.

"That service [Injinoo] has responsibilities to ensure that child was adequately supervised and that child was clearly not adequately supervised."

Senator Walsh said there was also broader work underway on adequate supervision in early childhood services.

She told the committee CCTV would be discussed at next week's meeting of education ministers following a trial involving 300 services.

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.

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 despite significant compliance histories.

"What does a large provider actually have to do before the Commonwealth intervenes?" she said, pointing to 25 staff ratio breaches last year.

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.

For Only About Children, another big for-profit provider, the figure was 27 per cent, or one in four.

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.

Ling was jailed in June for four years with a one-year non-parole period.

Queensland District Court Judge Dean Morzone KC described her offending as "monstrous, cruel and sadistic" and "a gross breach of trust".

The Injinoo Child Care Centre was closed after losing funding.