Support is growing among the state and territory governments for the Daniel Morcombe child safety course to be included in the national curriculum, with a majority of education ministers backing the idea.
The course was recommended for a national rollout as part of a major review into the Australian curriculum and is named after a 13-year-old who was abducted and murdered on the Sunshine Coast.
In July, Daniel's parents Bruce and Denise Morcombe travelled to Canberra to lobby federal MPs for the course to be implemented nationally. Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne has backed the recommendation but said the decision is for the state and territory governments, who run schools. Mr Pyne and his state counterparts will meet in December for a first response to the review into the curriculum, which found the syllabus is overcrowded and advocates a back to basics approach.
The territory governments gave the strongest response in favour of adopting the Daniel Morcombe child safety course out of the state and territory Education Ministers contacted by Fairfax Media.
The Northern Territory government, which on Wednesday announced a "Daniel's Law" establishing Australia's public sex offender register gave the strongest signal it would agree to adopt the Morcombe's child safety course.
The NT's Education Minister Peter Chandler said he was "impressed" by and "supportive" of the Morcombe's child safety course when it was shown to him during a meeting with Bruce and Denise in 2013.
"I've since asked my department to investigate how it could be implemented in Northern Territory schools. That way I will be well prepared when it comes to discuss the review of the National Curriculum at the next Ministerial Council in December," he said.
The ACT is also broadly supportive. ACT Education Minister Joy Burch said the Daniel Morcombe Foundation's work is "highly regarded" and "the ACT government supports a nationally consistent approach to child safety education and discussions are ongoing at a national level".
The Daniel Morcombe child safety curriculum was developed by Queensland's education department in conjunction with Bruce and Denise Morcombe and has been available to schools on a non-compulsory basis in Queensland for 12 months.
Queensland's Acting Education Minister Ian Walker said he was proud of the work the Newman government had done with the Morcombes to protect children and backed a national adoption.
"I would encourage all other states and jurisdictions to consider using these resources in order to teach their children about personal safety," he said.
"These materials have been available to Prep to Year 2 students in all Queensland schools since 2012 and to Years 3 to 9 in 2013.
"The Newman government is determined to ensure Queensland is the safest state to raise a family and we are proud of the work we have done with the Bruce and Denise Morcombe to develop these curriculum resources.
The West Australian government has signalled that it will adopt the course. WA Education Minister Peter Collier said: "I support the intention of the program and look forward to further discussion with Minister Pyne in relation to this recommendation."
South Australia has its own compulsory child safety curriculum, which was also praised in the National Curriculum review, so any change is unlikely.
SA Education Minister Jennifer Rankine said: "The Morcombe family themselves have praised our curriculum and leading child protection expert Freda Briggs from the University of South Australia described it as 'the best child protection curriculum probably in the world'.
"This curriculum is mandatory in our schools and regularly updated," she said.
Victorian Education Minister Martin Dixon said his government has "already partnered" with Queensland to support the Daniel Morcombe Foundation and is making the curriculum available to Victorian schools. However, Victoria's scheme is not mandatory.
The New South Wales government was the only state government that declined to give its view about the child safety course recommendation.
A spokesperson for the NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccolli said: "NSW will consider this along with all the other recommendations."
Tasmania's Jeremy Rockcliff said he was a huge supporter of the Daniel Morcombe Foundation's work on child safety and backed the curriculum being adopted nationally.
He described his recent meeting with Bruce and Denise Morcombe as "one of the most inspiring meetings I've had".
