Using a new standing order, the Chief Minister moved to narrow the scope of an order for the production of documents that Thomas brought forward in June, which sought to release information relating to regulatory breaches in ACT early childhood education and care centres over the past 5 years. The proposed new scope would include only formal regulatory notices, removing all evidence relating to those notices, as well as extending the timeline for publishing the documents by a further three months. The change was brought on the grounds of many documents having been identified, and significant public resourcing being required to prepare them for release.

The purpose of the original order, which was passed by the Assembly, was to gauge the effectiveness of the ACT’s regulatory system in keeping children safe in early childhood education and care settings. Thomas argued during the debate that without the evidence informing regulatory decisions, that purpose cannot be fulfilled. His position was that reducing the scope to only the formal regulatory decisions and not the evidence underpinning those decisions — such as witness statements, police evidence, incident reports, and correspondence with complainants — risked undermining the entire exercise.

In light of this concern, Thomas brought forward his own amendments, which attempted to find a constructive middle ground without undermining transparency and scrutiny of the sector by changing the timeframe for documents to be released from five years down to three years, and excluding unnecessary documents like child enrolment and attendance records. 

Thomas had the support of the crossbench with this position but ACT Labor and the Canberra Liberals voted against it, so the scope of documents to be released will be reduced as proposed by the Chief Minister.