Fast-tracked spot checks, funds-stripping powers but 'no silver bullet' to childcare woes
"They won't need a warrant," Clare said. "They won't need the police to come with them when they're investigating fraud in childcare centres."
Brown, 26, had a valid working with children check and was not known to police or subject to any complaints before his arrest in May. 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 their regimes, and Clare confirmed plans to strengthen the checks will be discussed at a meeting of state and federal attorneys-general in August. He said they would examine how to improve the criminal record check system. "Part of it is about information sharing across borders," Clare said. "Part of it is about making sure that it's updated in near real time." But Clare warned there was "no silver bullet" to solving problems in the sector.
"There's a whole bunch of things that we need to do, and this work will never end," he said. "There are always going to be more things that we need to do here because there's always going to be people who are going to try and break through the net to try to do the dastardly things that we've seen other people do."
Education Minister Jason Clare said early childhood education ministers would discuss the use of CCTV cameras at centres when they meet next month. Source: AAP / Dominic Lipinski/PA Clare also said that early education ministers would discuss the installation of CCTV cameras at childcare centres when they meet next month, following the announcement by childcare chain Goodstart Early Learning that it would install them across its 653 centres. "One of the things that having a CCTV camera in a childcare centre can do is if there's somebody that's potentially up to no good, they know the camera's there," Clare said. "It means it's less likely that they're going to act, so it's one of the things that we're looking at right now." It comes as a former royal commissioner has criticised governments for dragging their feet on creating a national regime for Working With Children Checks (WWCC). The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse called on the federal government in 2015 to "facilitate a national model" for WWCC. Robert Fitzgerald, one of five members of the royal commission, said the recommendation remained unfulfilled. "My view is that is shameful," the now-age discrimination commissioner told the Australian Associated Press. "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." Clare said earlier this week the reforms had taken "too bloody long". — With additional reporting by the Australian Associated Press
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Perth Now
35 minutes ago
- Perth Now
Childcare abuse allegations prompt wider risk warning
The case of a childcare worker accused of serially abusing infants has ignited widespread alarm, but a leading voice has issued a stark reminder of the risks that exist far beyond the confines of daycare. A national debate has raged since Tuesday when it emerged Joshua Dale Brown was charged with more than 70 sex offences. The 26-year-old, who worked at 20 childcare centres across Melbourne from 2017 to 2025, has been accused of abusing eight children aged under two at a Point Cook facility. It is estimated at least one sexual misconduct report comes from Australian childcare centres each day on average. Earlier in the week, after the allegations against Brown came to light, Education Minister Jason Clare said he believed pedophiles were targeting childcare centres. But Victoria's acting principal commissioner for children and young people said "sadly" child abuse occurred in many different settings. "If we're going to really make a shift on child safety and prevention of abuse, we really have to be open to having hard discussions about where abuse happens and who harms children and the trust that they gain," Meena Singh told AAP. In Victoria, organisations that work with children must notify the Commission for Children and Young People of alleged abuse by staff and volunteers under the state's reportable conduct scheme. The commission's data shows 28 per cent of reportable allegations in 2023/24 were connected to early childhood education options such as long day care, preschool or kindergarten and outside-school-hours care. Schools and other education settings were responsible for 40 per cent, and another 21 per cent came from out-of-home care, which includes residential, kinship and foster care. Almost one in three claims were substantiated. Sexual misconduct and sexual offence allegations were easily the most common in education settings, followed by early childhood education and out-of-home care (72). Ms Singh said considerations around the safety of children and young people were not always "front and centre" for some organisations. "When allegations come up, they're not being acted upon or there is delays," she said. Ms Singh backed a push to move towards a national working with children clearance regime and the introduction of a national childcare sector regulator, declaring "gaps" remain. "Not every state or territory has child safe conduct standards or a reportable scheme," she said. The allegations against Brown, who was not subject to any complaints before his arrest, has spawned a raft of childcare reform promises from federal and state governments. Federal measures include legislation to cut funding to childcare providers flouting safety and quality obligations, a register of early early educators and shortening the mandatory reporting of abuse complaints from seven days to 24 hours. NSW will block appeals against working-with-children-check denials and trial CCTV in facilities, while Victoria is considering making the technology mandatory and fast-tracking a ban on phone use in centres. Queensland has launched an inquiry into its regime for working with children checks. Meanwhile, precautionary testing for sexually transmitted infections is continuing on 1200 children as authorities review records following reports the alleged pedophile may have worked in the sector longer than first thought. 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
The Australian
3 hours ago
- The Australian
Brisbane-based Swyftx will buy Melbourne-based Caleb & Brown
Australian cryptocurrency exchange Swyftx has sealed a mega deal to acquire a US-focused crypto brokerage targeting millionaires in Donald Trump's self-declared 'crypto capital of the planet'. The acquisition is believed to be worth between $100m and $200m. Brisbane-based Swyftx will buy Melbourne-based Caleb & Brown, which has built a business focused on rich US private investors who are increasingly piling into crypto assets after President Trump declared he wanted to make the country the world's crypto capital. Such investors have at least $1m in liquid assets. The acquisition, the largest crypto deal ever in Australasia, comes three months after Swyftx signed a deal to buy Easy Crypto, New Zealand's largest cryptocurrency exchange. Swyftx has successfully emerged from challenges in recent years, chiefly a failed merger in 2022 with rival Superhero to create a wealth management platform administering $1.5bn in cryptocurrency, direct equities and superannuation assets. The same year it sacked 90 staff, equivalent to more than one-third of its employees, amid the brutal downturn in trading volumes following the collapse of US-based crypto exchange FTX. Swyftx chief executive Jason Titman said the deal was 'laser-focused on supporting high rolling crypto investors in the US'. The US accounts for about a quarter of all global trade volumes in cryptocurrency. 'We're entering a golden age for digital assets,' said Mr Titman, who declined to value the deal except to say it was in the 'tens of millions'. 'There are a lot of the new breed of wealthy investors who want a service that is ultra client-centric, with around-the-clock access to broker expertise.' Mr Titman said the election of Mr Trump has sparked surging interest in crypto. 'There has been a 180-degree shift in the US since the Trump administration came in last November in terms of crypto,' he said. Trump's pick of Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is expected to end a crypto crackdown introduced under President Biden. 'High net worth individuals are always sensitive to the regulatory environment and they don't want to be investing money in an asset class that has got some level of government risk,' he said. 'A lot of that political risk was taken out when the Trump administration was elected.' Caleb & Brown, which has more than $2bn of digital assets under custody, was founded by Rupert Hackett and Dr Prash Puspanathan in 2016. It is led by partner Jackson Zeng and employs 64 team members across Australia and the US. Mr Titman said a typical US client had generally made their fortune in traditional industries, such as property or medicine, but wanted exposure to crypto. 'They are understanding that Bitcoin that's gone up 1200 per cent over the last five years and is the fastest growing and a highest asset growth of all time and it is something that they want to participate in,' he said. 'Previously they might have invested in an office building, in equities, maybe some bonds, maybe some Forex currency trading. They have millions of dollars of free investable cash and that's the customer base that we now have access to.' Swyftx, founded in a Brisbane bedroom in 2017 by young entrepreneurs Angus Goldman and Alex Harper, will employ just under 300 team members on completion of the deal. It is now one of the region's largest digital asset brokerages with more than 1.2 million customers. Mr Titman's career, which has spanned accountancy, hotel development and e-commerce, said Swyftx was moving beyond its start-up roots into the corporate big league or what he termed from 'hoodies to suits'. Mr Titman said he expected to see a collection of cryptocurrencies, known as stable coins, eventually replacing traditional cash for investment and trading. He said Swyftx was looking at several other acquisitions. 'There is a larger plan coming together here for Swyftx. Part of it's organic, part of it's partnerships and part of it's mergers and acquisitions,' he said. 'This is our second transaction after Easy Crypto and it is about getting a different customer base. It also fast tracks our move into the US, which I've been interested in doing for some time.' Read related topics: Donald Trump Glen Norris Senior Business Reporter Glen Norris has worked in London, Hong Kong and Tokyo with stints on The Asian Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and South China Morning Post. Economics The message from business to Anthony Albanese's challenge is not to overcomplicate the process, but there has to be a real appetite for change. Business Business leaders have demanded Anthony Albanese delivers a broad reform package at August's roundtable. 'Of course the PM should be worried … Why would we want to be the 15th or the 16th or the 17th of anything?' asked Paul Schroder.
News.com.au
5 hours ago
- News.com.au
Anthony Albanese pays tribute to former Labor prime minister John Curtin for standing up to US, UK
Anthony Albanese will pay homage to former Labor prime minister John Curtin as not just the leader who founded Australia's alliance with the US, but one who stood up against allied super powers, in pointed comments amid concerns over Australia's relationship with America. Mr Curtin's leadership, which lasted between 1941 to 1945, lasted during the Pacific War and the bombing of Darwin and Broome by the Japanese. He died while in office, before peace was declared. In a speech to mark the 80th anniversary of Mr Curtin's death on Saturday, the Prime Minister will credit the Labor figure with forging Australia's long-held alliance with the United States. However Mr Albanese will also note Mr Curtin's decision to stand up to the US and the United Kingdom, then led by Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill his decision not to send Australian troops to then Burma, now Myanmar, in what would have been days before it fell to the Japanese. 'Hundreds if not thousands of Australians would have been killed, or taken prisoner. It would have been a disaster every bit as crushing to national morale as the fall of Singapore,' Mr Albanese is expected to tell attendees at Sydney's John Curtin Research Centre. Mr Albanese will note that while the Australian-US alliance 'ought to be remembered as a product of Curtin's leadership in defence and foreign policy, not the extent of it'. Instead, he will say that Mr Curtin had the 'confidence and determination to think and act for ourselves'. 'Because Curtin's famous statement that Australia 'looked to America' was much more than the idea of trading one strategic guarantor for another. Or swapping an alliance with the old world for one with the new,' he will say. 'It was a recognition that Australia's fate would be decided in our region. It followed the decision Curtin had made in 1941 that Australia would issue its own declaration of war with Japan. 'Speaking for ourselves, as a sovereign nation.' His remarks come as the Albanese government is currently under pressure by the Trump administration to amp up defence spending to 3.5 per cent, comes amid concerns of fragile global stability and claims from US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth that China would imminently invade Beijing. Mr Albanese has frequently rejected US pressure to amp up defence spending, stating that investment will be calculated according to Australia's needs. Labor is also under pressure to negotiate a tariff carveout, however on Friday he said he believed the levy applied to non steel and aluminium imports would remain at 10 per cent after Donald Trump's July 9 deadline. Mr Albanese is also set to champion to 'rights and the role of middle powers and smaller nations' and speak to the importance of collective responsibility in the Indo-Pacific, despite fears of China's increasing aggression in the area. Ensuring that the 'sovereignty of every nation is respected and the dignity of every individual is upheld' is another priority. He will say his government will continue to rebuild Australia 'standing as a leader and partner in the Pacific,' deepen economic engagement in South East Asia, while 'patiently and deliberately working to stabilise our relationship with China'.
