Australia is a step closer to preventing criminals from jumping borders and working with children, as the next phase of a national database anticipated for more than a decade is rolled out.
The pilot program of the National Continuous Checking Capability already has access to information about Commonwealth and ACT offences. From Monday, South Australia will join.
It comes after all jurisdictions agreed in 2025 to share working with children check material and criminal histories, meaning offenders can not jump states to work with kids.
The database will track the criminal history of all Australians who hold Working with Children checks in close to real time, sharing the information across borders, but it is not expected to be operational in every jurisdiction until 2028.
Complex systems which differ by state are largely to blame, Federal Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said. In some jurisdictions, her counterparts do not even have access to the correct systems needed for the tracking, as they sit with other departments.
As if it would be possible for all jurisdictions to at least be connected to the national database, Ms Rowland said it was important to be "ambitious".
"These are time frames that are not goals. They are time frames that we want to beat," she told ABC Radio National.
"My key message today is that we've achieved a lot so far."
A centralised database of criminal history information was recommended by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2015. It is being established more than a decade later.
It also recommended National consistency for working with children check systems, though it stopped short of calling for a centralised check.
The federal government has invested $37 million into the system. Police agencies are expected to integrate with it, and the federal government will complete final enhancements.
States and territories must opt in to the system by modifying their existing programs to connect to the database. There is no deadline for them to do so. All jurisdictions have confirmed they will join.
Ms Rowland is set to meet with attorneys-general across the nation on Friday, and the database will be a key talking point.
