Portfolio — 19 May 2026

Attorney-General Michelle Rowland used a 19 May media release to mark Australia reaching first place on the global Out of the Shadows Index for preventing and responding to child sexual abuse — up from seventh in 2022 — and to signal the government's next phase of work under the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse [TA-260519-attorn-04b2081b7c51].

The announcement bundles several concurrent developments into a single strategic communication. The 2026–27 Budget added $13.5 million to the National Strategy's First Action Plan, building on $328.7 million already allocated to child-safety initiatives [TA-260519-attorn-04b2081b7c51]. In April the government launched Stop it Now!

Australia — the country's first national offender-prevention service — marking a concrete operational milestone [TA-260519-attorn-04b2081b7c51]. The second phase of the 'One Talk at a Time' campaign has also commenced, directing messaging at adults to start proactive conversations with children about sexual abuse [TA-260519-attorn-04b2081b7c51]. On the regulatory side, all states and territories have now introduced or passed legislation ensuring that a person barred from holding a Working with Children Check in one jurisdiction is barred in all — a cross-jurisdictional enforcement gap the government has been working to close [TA-260519-attorn-04b2081b7c51].

Looking ahead, the Attorney-General's Department will consult state and territory governments, non-government stakeholders, and the community in coming weeks to develop the Second Action Plan, signalling the strategy is entering a new implementation phase [TA-260519-attorn-04b2081b7c51]. The release frames the portfolio's direction as one of coordinated national reform sustained across Commonwealth, state, and territory actors — the cross-jurisdictional architecture is treated as both a policy achievement and the mechanism for further progress [TA-260519-attorn-04b2081b7c51].