Allan government postpones key child safety reform on Working With Children Checks in row over disability watchdogs, Social Services Regulator

Laws promising to make Victoria’s childcare system safer have been delayed because the government tied them to other more contentious changes that did not have the votes to pass through parliament.

Minister for Children Lizzie Blandthorn will on Thursday seek to push back debate on an already delayed 450-page child safety bill the government had originally set for an October deadline.

The government has been forced to do so because a more contentious part of the bill, the merging of multiple disability watchdogs, does not have support from the opposition or the crossbench and would have been voted down.

As revealed by The Age last week , disability advocates and unions slammed the government for pushing the “dangerous” and controversial changes to the state’s disability watchdogs un