Kindy cop vow after childcare charges
Mr Brown, 26, was charged with 70 offences after he allegedly abused eight children at a Point Cook childcare centre in Melbourne.
It is alleged some children were as young as five months, and the charges have resulted in 1200 children being asked to undergo infectious disease testing.
Conceding that 'not enough has been done, and not fast enough' to keep children safe, Mr Clare said legislation would be introduced within the first sitting fortnight once parliament resumes on July 22.
Once passed, the new laws would allow fraud investigators to conduct random, unannounced visits at childcare centres without a warrant, and without the need to be accompanied by police. Jason Clare said the new laws would be introduced within the first fortnight once parliament resumes sitting on July 22. NewsWire/ Nikki Short Credit: News Corp Australia
Separate laws will also allow the federal government, which currently provides $16bn of annual funding to centres, to scrap payments to places which do not meet standards.
'One of the big weapons that the Commonwealth has, probably the biggest, is the funding that we provide to childcare centres, something like $16 billion a year,' he told Sky on Friday.
'Centers run based on that funding. If they don't get it, they can't operate. And what I'm saying is, if they're not meeting those standards that we expect, then we should have the power to pull that funding off them. So the Bill will do that.
'The bill will also make sure that centres that aren't meeting those minimum standards can't expand and open another centre.'
Mr Clare said there were about 150 staff in the investigate team, with the government also able to draw in investigators from state based regulators.
He noted that while the initiative will cost money, it would ultimately help the budget bottom line by reducing fraudulent claims.
'The investment of about an extra $200 million over the last few years has clawed back more than that in money we've saved from the fraud investigations,' he said. The proposed laws come after a Melbourne man and alleged pedophile was hit with more than 70 charges including child sexual assault. Picture Supplied., Credit: Supplied
Mr Clare said joint federal and state education ministers will consider how CCTV cameras could be used as a deterrent against unscrupulous behaviour but said they had to 'be in the right places if deterrence is going to work'.
'How you set them up is just as critical as whether you've got them there at all,' he said.
There could also be stronger laws in relation to real-time updates on working-with-children checks when Attorney-General Michelle Rowland convenes a meeting with state attorney generals in August.
The long called-for changes were an initial recommendation made in the 2015 Royal Commission into Institutionalised Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Attorneys-General will consider how states and territories can better share information across borders and look at strategies to 'improve criminal record checks and the criminal record check system'.
However Mr Clare warned these solutions were not a 'silver bullet'.
'I'm not going to comment specifically on the case in Victoria, because it will be before the court, but in other examples, we've found people who have been convicted of assaulting children in child care centres where they had a criminal record check. Why? Because they didn't have a criminal record and so they got through the system,' he said. Joshua Brown has been hit with 70 charges. Supplied Credit: Supplied
'The truth is here there's no silver bullet. There's a whole bunch of things that we need to do. And this work will never end.
'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.'
Bravehearts chief executive Alison Geale welcomed the proposed changes but hoped the 'vigour and rigour extends beyond this news cycle because these cases are happening almost weekly'.
'I think that any measure that's taken in isolation isn't the one answer. There is systemic reform, societal reform that needs to happen,' she told Sky.
The proposed changes after Mr Brown, a 26-year-old former childcare worker, was hit with 70 offences including sexual assault, and the possession of child pornography.
Victorian authorities have since confirmed he worked at 20 childcare centres between January 2017 and May 2025. About 2600 families have been contacted, with 1200 children being urged to undergo testing for infectious disease as a precaution.
He will appear at Melbourne Magistrate's Court on September 15.
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