With more allegations of sexual abuse at childcare centres, is banning men the answer?
Louise Edmonds, a founding member of the Independent Collective of Survivors, says the safety of children must be prioritised over all else.
'With growing evidence and lived experience pointing to the disproportionate involvement of men in cases of child sexual abuse, we must ask difficult questions,' she said. 'In my view, men have no place in daycare centres, not out of prejudice, but out of a duty to prioritise the safety of children over the optics of equality. Safeguarding must come before ideology.'
Others argue a ban is not the answer, saying sexual offending – which, crime statistics show, is primarily perpetrated by men – is not the only type of abuse plaguing childcare centres, and that the system must be strengthened to ensure all kinds of child maltreatment are either prevented, or quickly identified, reported and acted upon.
Edmonds' comments come as NSW pledges a trial of CCTV in childcare centres and moves to ban people who have been refused a Working With Children Check (WWCC) from appealing the decision.
Concerns about safety in the early childhood sector have intensified amid a growing number of serious allegations against childcare workers.
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In separate incidents over a single month last year, three NSW childcare workers were charged with sexual touching of children or, in one of the cases, child abuse. Last November, Australia's worst paedophile – childcare worker Ashley Paul Griffith – was sentenced to life in prison for 307 sexual offences against 73 victims over almost 20 years.
This week, two men, one of whom was a childcare worker, have been charged with serious abuse of young children in Victoria. Joshua Dale Brown is accused of abusing eight children at different centres in Melbourne, and police said he and the other man were known to each other.
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ABC News
11 hours ago
- ABC News
Man held valid WWCC check for years after arrest for accessing child abuse material
A Victorian man, known for his involvement in children's cultural education programs, held a valid Working With Children Check (WWCC) for four years after being arrested over accessing child abuse material. Wergaia elder Ronald Marks, a prominent Horsham man, was convicted in the city's Magistrates' Court on Wednesday where he pleaded guilty to accessing child abuse material between 2012 and 2021. The 74-year-old was fined $7,500, and ordered to report to Victoria Police for the next eight years. The ABC now understands that Marks, who was arrested in 2021, held a valid WWCC until he was charged in January 2025. During those four years he attended kindergartens to educate students on cultural issues. A Victoria Police spokesperson said detectives began investigating Marks in 2021, and his physical WWCC card was seized. The Department of Justice was also notified. However, under the current system, a person can be arrested over child-related offences and still hold a valid WWCC. It's not until they are formally charged or convicted that their WWCC might be suspended or cancelled. Yarriambiack Shire Council's chief executive officer Tammy Smith told the ABC that gap was a huge flaw in the system. The ABC revealed this week that the state's Department of Government Services (DGS) had completed an initial review into Victoria's WWCC system. Currently in Victoria, a WWCC can only be revoked following criminal charges or a regulatory finding. A spokesperson for the Victorian government told the ABC it relied on alerts from Victoria Police or other authorities to action a WWCC suspension. The government said it planned to modify the system following its review, with changes due to be implemented in August. Until August last year, Marks was contracted through his personal business, Wergaia Industries, to lead kindergarten cultural awareness programs as part of the School Readiness Program. According to business records, Marks' ABN was cancelled on August 20, 2024. Ms Smith said the council only became aware of Marks' criminal conduct this week following media reports of his conviction. She said Yarriambiack Shire had no idea Marks was arrested in 2021 or charged in January this year, and confirmed council staff had sighted a physical WWCC in October last year. Following the revelations, Ms Smith said the council commenced an internal investigation and found Marks held a valid WWCC when he was contracted to provide the kindergarten program. The ABC spoke with multiple organisations that contracted Marks. All had sighted a WWCC they believed to be valid as late as November 2024. Elicia Napoli, CEO of Emerge Early Years Services, a non-for-profit that operates kindergarten and day-care programs across the Wimmera region, raised concerns about the failure to suspend WWCCs of people under investigation for child-related offences. "There are risks to children, families, educators, community if that doesn't happen," Ms Napoli said. She told the ABC that cultural education was an important part of the curriculum and would continue. In a statement posted online, Barengi Gadjin Land Council Aboriginal Corporation (BGLC), the body representing traditional owners of the area, said it was "shocked and appalled" by the news. "Upon learning of the conviction, we immediately terminated all services provided by Mr Marks and launched a full review of his past involvement with our programs," BGLC chair Chris Harrison said. Mr Harrison said BGLC was undertaking a "full safeguarding review" and would be offering support to staff and community. The council is working with BGLC to remove and replace a giant silo art installation featuring the Wergaia elder's face at Sheep Hills. "Both Yarriambiack Shire and Barengi Gadjin Land Council representatives agree that ensuring and supporting the safety of children is of the utmost importance, and therefore the image of Mr Marks on the Sheep Hills Silo should be removed as a matter of priority," Ms Smith said. "The council has engaged with the artist who commissioned the artwork, and we are collaborating with both the artist and Barengi Gadjin Land Council representatives to begin work on the redesign of the silo art." Yarriambiack Shire Council said it hoped to replace Marks' face on the artwork later this month.
ABC News
2 days ago
- ABC News
ACT childcare safety practice could be the answer to a national approach, commissioner says
The revelation on Tuesday that a Victorian childcare worker had been arrested for over 70 alleged child sexual abuse charges sent shock waves through the entire country. It left state and territory governments scrambling to ensure the child safety protocols in their early childhood education and care sectors were effective. In 2015 the Royal Commission into Institutionalised Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recommended that Working With Children Checks (WWCCs) across the country be both standardised and nationalised. A decade on they're still handled at the state and territory level, with different practices in different jurisdictions, but experts are calling for that to be changed. At present some jurisdictions WWCCs are a point in time check, updated only on the day they are issued with a list of offences from that person's criminal history. In the ACT the equivalent of WWCCs are Working With Vulnerable People (WWVP) checks, which already include ongoing assessment of a person's eligibility to work with vulnerable people. They can also involve national criminal history checks along with other relevant disciplinary and police information — and when someone is deregistered, protocol requires the national database for WWCCs be notified of that. ACT Children and Young People Commissioner Jodie Griffiths-Cook said the incident in Victoria was a "devastating reminder of our collective responsibility to do all we can" to protect children from harm. She said creating national consistency in WWCCs could help the childcare sector do that — and that including features of the ACT's WWVP registry could offer value to that proposed national scheme. "I certainly think this [incident in Victoria] is a real reminder of the importance and the value of having those kind of systems that speak to each other across our state and territory boarders," Commissioner Griffiths-Cook said. "If we're going to go down the path of having such a registry, we need to make sure we're also including some of the best practice features that we've got here in the ACT, like continuous monitoring of WWVP registry." Commissioner Griffiths-Cook said that continuous monitoring was part of what made the ACT well-placed to manage safety in its childcare sector, along with being a smaller jurisdiction. A national register of early childhood education and care workers is another safety protocol experts believe could improve child safety in the sector. Early Childhood Australia CEO Sam Page said a national registration scheme for educators, similar to the one used for teachers, had been on the agenda for several years. "We have registration for teachers, and we can see how that works," Ms Page said. "We're not waiting for teachers to commit a criminal offence. "If we see teachers struggling, if we see poor practice, if we see inappropriate behaviour, the teachers board can react to that quickly and proactively and prevent anything worse from happening. "That's what we need for educators as well." Another reform being considered for the childcare sector across different states and territories is a ban on using personal mobile phones in centres. Commissioner Griffiths-Cook said the risks of someone being able to inadvertently film or photograph a child was important to mitigate. ACT Education and Early Childhood Minister Yvette Berry said the territory government was "absolutely on board" with understanding what such a ban would look like. She said she was in talks with NSW Education and Early Learning Minister Prue Car following the state's review into its childcare sector to consider what parts of its recommendations would be appropriate for the ACT. Ms Berry said part of that was the consideration of introducing CCTV in childcare centres for added safety monitoring. She said while she understood why some might have concerns about the considered CCTV use and mobile phone ban, it would include ensuring there was appropriate policies around how they were used in services. Though updated policies and national registers could offer improvement to child safety, Sam Page said the safety of children still came back to the team of educators working with them every day in childcare services. She said the vast majority of those educators were totally committed to child safety and wellbeing, but that needed to be supported. "We need to support a culture of reporting and constant risk vigilance, so that if educators are concerned about another educator's behaviour — think they're crossing boundaries with a child or with their family — they can raise those concerns and those concerns will be taken seriously, and there will be a response to that really quickly. "Sexual abuse perpetrators are incredibly insidious, and we need every other educator to be alert to that risk and to be watching out for signs of risk and taking preventative action."
7NEWS
3 days ago
- 7NEWS
Outrage as Working with Children Check only takes 30 minutes and requires a simple online form
It has been revealed that the Working with Children Check (WWCC) is only a 30-minute online form for anyone without a criminal record. A major spotlight has this week been put on child safety tools after a man was charged with 70 offences at a Melbourne childcare centre. Childcare worker Joshua Brown, 26, has been charged in relation to eight victims who attended a Point Cook childcare centre between April 2022 and January 2023. A Working with Children Check usually handles state-by-state but involves a national police check and a review of reportable workplace misconduct. Previously, the check has been a key safety tool used to ensure kids are being kept safe. The Herald Sun compared the online form with Victoria's Responsible Service of Alcohol course, which requires up to 10 hours of training in order to become certified. A number of childhood sexual abuse advocates, including Australian Childhood Foundation survivor Emma Hakansson, 25, said it was 'laughable' that governments considered the current checks acceptable. 'The adult who sexually abused me also had a WWCC,' she said in a report in the publication. 'The WWCC could be a tool to arm safe adults with training to keep children safe, and it's absurd we trust adults with children without any training, while training is required to serve alcohol, even to handle food.' On Friday, journalists Luke Bona and Susie O'Brien joined Nat Barr on Sunrise to discuss the relative ease in meeting the Working with Children Check requirement. Both called for tougher regulations. 'The story that has sparked all this is the most horrific thing,' Bona said. 'Remember, everybody is presumed innocent until proven guilty, but the spotlight is certainly on the safety and welfare of our children. 'The safety of our children is the most important thing we can offer, and we must provide. 'So, I take my hat off to Hetty Johnson from Bravehearts who's going to form her own course. 'But it's got to be mandatory, because the message is, we've got to keep kids safe at all costs.' This week, journalist Susie O'Brien reported that educators facing serious allegations can still work in childcare centres for up to two years due to regulatory issues. They are often allowed to work during the investigation. 'The comparison between the RSA and the Working with Children Check is really interesting, because you can be fined $10,000 for serving someone drunk,' O'Brien began. 'You probably lose your job, find it hard to get another job. 'But you can be a childcare worker who molests a toddler. 'Yes, you will lose your job, but you can continue working in other centres for up to two years, while they and decide if you're guilty or not, particularly in this state, but other states as well. 'It can take up to two years for a predator to be removed from childcare centres, and that is a massive problem.'
