Childcare horrors are shocking, but they're no surprise to me
And then there's the video – just nine seconds long. A defenceless baby, strapped into a bouncer, crying hysterically as a childcare worker slaps her across the face repeatedly for fun. Her colleague films it, laughing, and uploads it to Snapchat. It's hard to believe this is happening in Australia's childcare centres, but it's been going on for years, all in plain sight.
But there's even more heinous crimes. It took the announcement of a 26-year-old male educator being charged with more than 70 counts of child sexual abuse at a Melbourne childcare centre before people started asking the question … is childcare safe?
For someone like me, who has been investigating childcare for almost a year now, the news was horrifying but not a surprise. In Victoria, NSW and Western Australia, at least one report of sexual misconduct is made every day. And that's just what's tracked and reported. In Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory, there's no reportable conduct scheme, so we simply don't know.
The Victorian man facing charges, Joshua Dale Brown, worked at 20 childcare centres, most of them owned by big private operators including private equity-owned Affinity Education, listed ASX giant G8 Education and United States-owned Only About Children. His case is ongoing and remains before the courts.
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Scratch the surface, and you find more. On Wednesday, a worker from Affinity childcare group is scheduled to face a NSW court charged with nine counts of sexually touching a child. This case is also ongoing.
In March, Quoc Phu Tong, who worked at a Seaforth centre run by Only About Children, was sentenced to two years in prison for the intentional touching of a child.
Then there's Ashley Paul Griffith, a childcare worker sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to a series of offences at early learning centres, mostly in Queensland. His crimes, described as 'depraved', included rape and the production of child-exploitation material. Griffith's abuse went undetected for years, despite holding a valid Blue Card – Queensland's working-with-children check – due to systemic failures in the child-protection systems.
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Authorities have been accused of dropping the ball in their failure to disclose an alleged child abuser's full work history as police dig into his past. Joshua Dale Brown has been charged with more than 70 sex offences after allegedly abusing eight children aged under two at a childcare facility at Point Cook, in Melbourne's southwest. The 26-year-old worked in at least 20 centres since 2017, for which a list and set of dates have already been made public. But Victoria Police said they were continuing to investigate further details of his employment history as a matter of priority after parents reported discrepancies in the listed dates. "We understand that many in the community are feeling concerned and anxious, however it is incredibly important that this information is confirmed, then thoroughly reviewed with other relevant agencies prior to any public release," a police spokeswoman said. 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Families of the children recommended for STI testing are anxiously awaiting results, with several told to get their infants checked twice. They were first told to get their child checked for two diseases and then days later were warned about the need to test for a third. State, territory and federal education ministers are due to meet in August and they will discuss tighter safety measures, including the introduction of CCTV in centres and a national register of childcare workers. NSW has flagged a trial of CCTV cameras in centres, as an urgent Victorian review examines making the technology mandatory. South Australia is considering cameras and fast-tracking mobile phone bans in childcare centres while Western Australia is conducting a child safety review into facilities there. The Albanese government also plans to fast-track legislation to allow funding to be stripped from centres that don't meet standards, while spot checks will be introduced to limit fraud. But a former royal commissioner has slammed governments for dragging their feet on creating a national regime for working with children checks after an inquiry in 2015 issued the recommendation. Brown had a valid working with children check and was not known to police or subject to any complaints before his arrest in May. Robert Fitzgerald, one of five members of the royal commission, said it was shameful the recommendation remained unfulfilled. "Ten years on, that job should have been completed and the fact that it isn't means there are gaps in our child safeguarding regime," the now-age discrimination commissioner said. Every state and territory maintains separate working with children schemes with different rules and requirements. Victoria, Queensland and NSW have all committed to reviewing or tightening up their regimes. 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028 Authorities have been accused of dropping the ball in their failure to disclose an alleged child abuser's full work history as police dig into his past. Joshua Dale Brown has been charged with more than 70 sex offences after allegedly abusing eight children aged under two at a childcare facility at Point Cook, in Melbourne's southwest. The 26-year-old worked in at least 20 centres since 2017, for which a list and set of dates have already been made public. But Victoria Police said they were continuing to investigate further details of his employment history as a matter of priority after parents reported discrepancies in the listed dates. "We understand that many in the community are feeling concerned and anxious, however it is incredibly important that this information is confirmed, then thoroughly reviewed with other relevant agencies prior to any public release," a police spokeswoman said. Childcare operator Affinity Education, which operates several facilities where Brown worked, is reviewing its records following reports he might have been employed longer than first thought. The families of 1200 children have been told to get the infants tested for sexually transmitted infections as a precaution. Parents have contacted the Australian Childhood Foundation complaining they're not getting adequate communication from authorities or childcare centre management. "We're dropping the ball," the charity's chief executive Janise Mitchell told AAP. She supported the police investigation but added there needed to be a constant line of communication to the families most closely impacted. "What that loses sight of is the anxiety, the terror, the fear parents are laying awake with every night, wondering where they sit in the unfolding scenario," Ms Mitchell said. "In the absence of communication, fear grows, mistrust grows, and anxiety grows that there's something going on." Families of the children recommended for STI testing are anxiously awaiting results, with several told to get their infants checked twice. They were first told to get their child checked for two diseases and then days later were warned about the need to test for a third. State, territory and federal education ministers are due to meet in August and they will discuss tighter safety measures, including the introduction of CCTV in centres and a national register of childcare workers. NSW has flagged a trial of CCTV cameras in centres, as an urgent Victorian review examines making the technology mandatory. South Australia is considering cameras and fast-tracking mobile phone bans in childcare centres while Western Australia is conducting a child safety review into facilities there. The Albanese government also plans to fast-track legislation to allow funding to be stripped from centres that don't meet standards, while spot checks will be introduced to limit fraud. But a former royal commissioner has slammed governments for dragging their feet on creating a national regime for working with children checks after an inquiry in 2015 issued the recommendation. Brown had a valid working with children check and was not known to police or subject to any complaints before his arrest in May. Robert Fitzgerald, one of five members of the royal commission, said it was shameful the recommendation remained unfulfilled. "Ten years on, that job should have been completed and the fact that it isn't means there are gaps in our child safeguarding regime," the now-age discrimination commissioner said. Every state and territory maintains separate working with children schemes with different rules and requirements. Victoria, Queensland and NSW have all committed to reviewing or tightening up their regimes. 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028 Authorities have been accused of dropping the ball in their failure to disclose an alleged child abuser's full work history as police dig into his past. Joshua Dale Brown has been charged with more than 70 sex offences after allegedly abusing eight children aged under two at a childcare facility at Point Cook, in Melbourne's southwest. The 26-year-old worked in at least 20 centres since 2017, for which a list and set of dates have already been made public. But Victoria Police said they were continuing to investigate further details of his employment history as a matter of priority after parents reported discrepancies in the listed dates. "We understand that many in the community are feeling concerned and anxious, however it is incredibly important that this information is confirmed, then thoroughly reviewed with other relevant agencies prior to any public release," a police spokeswoman said. Childcare operator Affinity Education, which operates several facilities where Brown worked, is reviewing its records following reports he might have been employed longer than first thought. The families of 1200 children have been told to get the infants tested for sexually transmitted infections as a precaution. Parents have contacted the Australian Childhood Foundation complaining they're not getting adequate communication from authorities or childcare centre management. "We're dropping the ball," the charity's chief executive Janise Mitchell told AAP. She supported the police investigation but added there needed to be a constant line of communication to the families most closely impacted. "What that loses sight of is the anxiety, the terror, the fear parents are laying awake with every night, wondering where they sit in the unfolding scenario," Ms Mitchell said. "In the absence of communication, fear grows, mistrust grows, and anxiety grows that there's something going on." Families of the children recommended for STI testing are anxiously awaiting results, with several told to get their infants checked twice. They were first told to get their child checked for two diseases and then days later were warned about the need to test for a third. State, territory and federal education ministers are due to meet in August and they will discuss tighter safety measures, including the introduction of CCTV in centres and a national register of childcare workers. NSW has flagged a trial of CCTV cameras in centres, as an urgent Victorian review examines making the technology mandatory. South Australia is considering cameras and fast-tracking mobile phone bans in childcare centres while Western Australia is conducting a child safety review into facilities there. The Albanese government also plans to fast-track legislation to allow funding to be stripped from centres that don't meet standards, while spot checks will be introduced to limit fraud. But a former royal commissioner has slammed governments for dragging their feet on creating a national regime for working with children checks after an inquiry in 2015 issued the recommendation. Brown had a valid working with children check and was not known to police or subject to any complaints before his arrest in May. Robert Fitzgerald, one of five members of the royal commission, said it was shameful the recommendation remained unfulfilled. "Ten years on, that job should have been completed and the fact that it isn't means there are gaps in our child safeguarding regime," the now-age discrimination commissioner said. Every state and territory maintains separate working with children schemes with different rules and requirements. Victoria, Queensland and NSW have all committed to reviewing or tightening up their regimes. 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028 Authorities have been accused of dropping the ball in their failure to disclose an alleged child abuser's full work history as police dig into his past. Joshua Dale Brown has been charged with more than 70 sex offences after allegedly abusing eight children aged under two at a childcare facility at Point Cook, in Melbourne's southwest. The 26-year-old worked in at least 20 centres since 2017, for which a list and set of dates have already been made public. But Victoria Police said they were continuing to investigate further details of his employment history as a matter of priority after parents reported discrepancies in the listed dates. "We understand that many in the community are feeling concerned and anxious, however it is incredibly important that this information is confirmed, then thoroughly reviewed with other relevant agencies prior to any public release," a police spokeswoman said. Childcare operator Affinity Education, which operates several facilities where Brown worked, is reviewing its records following reports he might have been employed longer than first thought. The families of 1200 children have been told to get the infants tested for sexually transmitted infections as a precaution. Parents have contacted the Australian Childhood Foundation complaining they're not getting adequate communication from authorities or childcare centre management. "We're dropping the ball," the charity's chief executive Janise Mitchell told AAP. She supported the police investigation but added there needed to be a constant line of communication to the families most closely impacted. "What that loses sight of is the anxiety, the terror, the fear parents are laying awake with every night, wondering where they sit in the unfolding scenario," Ms Mitchell said. "In the absence of communication, fear grows, mistrust grows, and anxiety grows that there's something going on." Families of the children recommended for STI testing are anxiously awaiting results, with several told to get their infants checked twice. They were first told to get their child checked for two diseases and then days later were warned about the need to test for a third. State, territory and federal education ministers are due to meet in August and they will discuss tighter safety measures, including the introduction of CCTV in centres and a national register of childcare workers. NSW has flagged a trial of CCTV cameras in centres, as an urgent Victorian review examines making the technology mandatory. South Australia is considering cameras and fast-tracking mobile phone bans in childcare centres while Western Australia is conducting a child safety review into facilities there. The Albanese government also plans to fast-track legislation to allow funding to be stripped from centres that don't meet standards, while spot checks will be introduced to limit fraud. But a former royal commissioner has slammed governments for dragging their feet on creating a national regime for working with children checks after an inquiry in 2015 issued the recommendation. Brown had a valid working with children check and was not known to police or subject to any complaints before his arrest in May. Robert Fitzgerald, one of five members of the royal commission, said it was shameful the recommendation remained unfulfilled. "Ten years on, that job should have been completed and the fact that it isn't means there are gaps in our child safeguarding regime," the now-age discrimination commissioner said. Every state and territory maintains separate working with children schemes with different rules and requirements. Victoria, Queensland and NSW have all committed to reviewing or tightening up their regimes. 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
