Latest news with #AbigailBoyd
News.com.au
17-07-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
‘Pinched her bum' leaked text messages of Mark Latham's ‘fantasy'
Mark Latham has been slammed as 'a pig' after revelations he photographed female MPs at work and joked about having 'a threesome' with NSW Greens MP Abigail Boyd in WhatsApp messages with his ex-partner. In the latest controversy to erupt over a trove of leaked text messages between the NSW MP and his ex-lover Nathalie Matthews, Mr Latham has made a range of disparaging comments about women he works with in NSW Parliament. In a series of WhatsApp messages, the pair referred to Greens MP Abigail Boyd wearing 'f**k me boots' before he and Ms Matthews discussed the prospect of a threesome with the MP. Ms Boyd is a feminist and lawyer who has campaigned tirelessly for women's rights. She declined to comment on the messages. Mr Latham has not denied the text messages but insisted they were playful banter with his ex-partner, who this week alleged he 'defecated' on her before sex. He has denied abusing Ms Matthews in any way, insisting all of their interactions were entirely consensual. She has lodged a legal application for an order to prohibit Mr Latham from contacting her claiming a sustained pattern of abuse and coercive control. does not suggest these allegations are true, only that they have been made against a serving NSW MP and a court will hear the application later this month. He has not been charged with any offence. 'A pig': Housing Minister slams Mark Latham Housing Minister Rose Jackson slammed Mark Latham as a'a pig' in the wake of the latest revelations of his conduct in private text messages about colleagues. 'Mark Latham is a pig,' she said. She noted his previous attacks on campaigner Rosie Batty whose son was murdered in a domestic violence incident by his own father. 'This man has attacked Rosie Batty, telling her to grieve in private. This man is well known on the record, multiple times as a bigot – one of the biggest bigots in the state.' 'It's extremely confronting for me to think that in a workplace there's someone who thinks it's acceptable to take photos of you and to share them with derogatory comments,' she said. 'Pinched her bum' Mr Latham also claims in the new messages, first revealed by The Daily Telegraph, that he pinched Liberal MP Eleni Petinos on the bottom, an incident she says never happened dismissing the 65-year-old man's WhatsApp claims as 'a fantasy'. In one Instagram message sent to his former partner Nathalie Matthews, Mr Latham shared a photo of Greens MP Abigail Boyd in the parliamentary chamber, taken without her knowledge. He then shared a photo of Liberal MP Susan Carter taken from behind showing her full body and bottom, saying 'then it gets worse .... Grandma'. In another message, he said Miranda MP Eleni Petinos 'looks pregnant'. 'I pinched her bum lightly and she smiled!!' he said. But Ms Petinos told the Daily Telegraph that the incident never happened, and was 'an absolute fantasy'. 'That is not in the realms of possibility,' she said. 'Mark's attitude towards his colleagues is disgraceful - instead of showing respect he chooses to objectify and degrade. 'It's just grossly inappropriate - we don't walk around to be objectified everyday.' Mr Latham insisted that his message about pinching the bottom of Ms Petinos was an 'in-joke'. '(Ms) Matthews had a particular interest/amusement in the weight gain of a female Liberal MP she knew and loved feedback from me about her,' he said. 'Sick puppies and the Poison Dwarf' Mr Latham has attacked the media as 'sick puppies' for asking him about sex videos at Parliament House and called one reporter 'a poison dwarf.' He said the media stories based on Ms Matthews' messages 'has come down to the weird, woke and wowser, with their Poisoned Dwarf asking me if it's sexual harassment to take a picture of a women in parliament.' 'Which the media, of course, do all the time!!!,'' he said. The photographs taken of female MPs in Parliament are not taken surreptitiously but by accredited photographers working in the press gallery and taken with the knowledge of MPs. Mr Latham also jokes about a 'weird fruit bowl' on a table in his parliamentary office. 'We were very fruity,' he joked, with an eggplant emoji. Alongside a photo of the table, Mr Latham wrote 'I'm planning to take this table to new office. More use with my hot wife.' The revelations of these texts follows allegations of a sex act filmed in Mr Latham's office, that formed part of Ms Matthews' allegations she took to police before they decided not to pursue an apprehended violence order. On X, Mr Latham said questions about sexual activity on his office desk had 'no suggestion of any law or rule (being) broken'. 'Freak off' claims Meanwhile, a Queensland sex worker claimed that Mr Latham and his then girlfriend contacted her and even met with her at a ritzy event at Sydney's Randwick Racecourse. Carly Electric said she suspected she was contacted because the couple wanted to hire her for a threesome. In a message sent by Mr Latham to his now ex-girlfriend, he said Ms Electric was 'good rooter' and joked if she might want to be involved in a 'freak off' – the now infamous term used by Sean 'Diddy' Combs to describe threesomes where one person looks on. 'It was just implied … who comes to a sex worker and behaves this way?' Ms Electric said of the interactions. Mr Latham dismissed the discussions of freak offs as 'a prank joke.' 'Just as the Tele today ran cherry-picked messages between me and Nathalie Matthews, with no context, missing in-jokes and pranks, they are at it again,'' he said. 'Often enough between consenting adults there are 10-20 messages leading up to a prank joke. Haha.' 'Masters c*ck' messages A leaked trove of Mr Latham's texts with Ms Matthews earlier this week exposed the couple's habit of graphic sexting exchanges about sex acts while Parliament was sitting and the use of tracking devices to find a 'f*ck parlour.' In one text exchange on February 20 at 11:06 am, the former Labor leader wrote: 'Master's c**k needs relief too. Very hard thinking about you.' The 64-year-old followed up with a series of emojis including a purple eggplant and a tongue. 'Haven't c*m in days,'' he wrote. 'Lots of c**k tension.' The messages continued throughout the day with Mr Latham referencing parliamentary work around 8pm. 'Made it back for the first vote after dinner,'' he wrote. 'I needed that. You're amazing.' Mr Latham labelled Ms Mathews' allegations of coercive control as 'comically false and ridiculous' in a post on X. 'As the old saying goes, Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,' the post said. 'The story says that Ms Matthews went to the police and they did not do anything. They certainly haven't contacted me.' 'Where's your tracker In October, the pair discussed tracking devices. 'Update your tracker,'' Mr Latham wrote. 'Where's tracker? Please follow instructions. Send tracker so I can find this f*ck parlour.' But the breakdown between the pair was also detailed in more recent messages after the relationship turned sour. 'The heinous monster I saw and that physically attacked me that Tuesday night is responsible for any heart issues you might have,'' Mr Latham wrote on June 6. 'Yes, I imploded on the person I love the most due to various external factors, and I never recall a physical attack,'' Ms Matthews responded. 'I reported the attack on me and the other threats you made that night to parliamentary security, as I am obliged to do,'' Mr Latham said. 'I have also had to see a doctor for the shakes I've had since that nightmarish night, and he advised the same thing. 'You obviously don't understand what you did, drunk, covered in mud, a monster screaming.' Mr Latham defended his taxpayer-funded sexting sessions conducted on the floor of NSW Parliament. After the release of hundreds of leaked text messages including sexual messages sent at the same time as he was sitting in Parliament, Mr Latham has insisted it never impacted his work. 'I don't think responding to a consensual partner on a private, intimate matter in any way has reduced my workload, which I would match up against any other member in the place,' he said.
Perth Now
07-07-2025
- General
- Perth Now
Shock claims about uni childcare course
Southern Cross University is facing claims that its 10-month graduate diploma in early childhood education is in crisis. Staff at the university told the ABC's 7.30 program the course, which could bring in $150m in fees for the SCU with the course cost set at $25,000 per student, was 'very low quality'. The institution was reportedly pushing the course 'hard' with an estimated 6000 students enrolled in the past two years, journalist Adele Ferguson reported. 'We've gone from having classes with 200 students in a unit, which was considered a lot, to over 2000 students,' a whistleblower said. The program alleged that the graduate diploma had received massive enrolments from international students, with the course heavily marketed through immigration agents as a pathway to residency. Immigration agent Mark Glazbrook told 7.30 the situation should 'concern every Australian'. 'We have people coming into Australia on student visas that are studying courses just to use that pathway to get permanent residency in Australia and they're looking after our children, and in some cases, they're not attending their classes.' An estimated 6000 students have enrolled in the course in the past two years, 7.30 reported. Southern Cross University / instagram Credit: Supplied In one claim, the program aired emails showing the university had asked staff to join 'phone sprints' to help find placements for students after the level of enrolment left it struggling to meet demand. 'One email described the situation as a significant crisis, threatening the viability of the faculty, with 400 placements needed by May, and another 2381 by July,' Ferguson reported. The staff who found the most placements for students reportedly received a gift card. The program went on to allege that SCU was placing students in childcare centres that were not meeting minimum national safety standards. The program said regulatory documents had exposed widespread gaps in basic care, including educators not understanding child protection policies, mandatory reporting duties, or even safe sleep and hygiene practices. NSW Greens MLC Abigail Boyd questioned how students were getting a good education at childcare centres that were not meeting standards. John Appleyard Credit: News Corp Australia Abigail Boyd, NSW Greens MLC said the situation struck her as absurd. 'How on earth is it giving those students any kind of good education,' Ms Boyd said. Southern Cross University has been contacted for comment. SCU declined 7.30's interview request and did not respond to detailed questions about enrolment numbers, staff turnover, student distress, or course quality and placement issues. In a statement it said the graduate diploma was a 'rigorous, high-quality program' attracting strong interest, and was fully accredited by the national higher education regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), and the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA).
Sydney Morning Herald
15-05-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
Abuse and neglect of children in daycare centres shames us all
Many parents harbour deep-seated and unspoken fears about leaving children in care, and the continuing allegations of neglect and abuse at childcare centres must rekindle their worst nightmares. In a heartbreaking article, the Herald 's Amber Schultz reports that a three-year-old girl in daycare allegedly left in soiled clothing all day will probably need a kidney transplant after medical notes showed that, along with her medication and congenital factors, recurrent urinary tract infections contributed to the disease. She attended Spring Farm daycare centre in south-west Sydney between 2020 and 2023. In 2022, Affinity Education Group took over the business. Since then, the centre has been issued several serious non-compliance orders, released as part of a cache of internal regulatory documents following a parliamentary order obtained by NSW Greens MP Abigail Boyd. On May 5, the NSW Department of Education's Early Childhood and Care Regulatory Authority suspended Spring Farm's licence for three months. The latest revelations came after an investigation by ABC's 7.30, which included footage of a worker at another Sydney Affinity Education centre repeatedly slapping a baby. A spokesman for the Affinity Education Group said the suspension was 'disappointing', given the centre's work with the regulator to improve compliance, which included improving its National Quality Standards rating and reducing staff turnover. Loading However, such allegations undermine faith in the sector and follow a spate of men being prosecuted for abusing children in childcare. Last year, three childcare workers were arrested in three days for child abuse in NSW, involving at least 10 victims, a former childcare worker pleaded guilty to 307 offences in Brisbane and Italy and in Canberra, another childcare worker was convicted of an act of indecency on a four-year-old boy. The federal government recognised changes to the Australian workforce and introduced the Child Care Act in 1972, providing capital and recurrent funding for not-for-profit long day care services. But the Howard government stopped operational subsidies for community-based centres, and with profit the driving force, privateers such as Eddy Groves' ABC Learning rushed into the new market: staff professionalism took second place to cheaper wages, planning controls were scrapped and standards tumbled across the sector. The government also introduced needs-based funding to ensure resources were allocated where they were most needed. Since then, the industry has grown exponentially with 9200 childcare centres across the country and some 400 opening annually. As of early 2024, 1,498,220 children from 1,069,650 families attended a Child Care Subsidy-approved child care service in Australia.
Daily Mail
12-05-2025
- Daily Mail
We trust childcare workers to look after our children. Now this horrific video shows every parent's worst nightmare
Concerning Snapchat video has emerged of a NSW childcare worker slapping a crying baby in the face. The video, obtained by the ABC's 7.30, was filmed at an Affinity Education centre in the inner western Sydney suburb of South Strathfield. The nine second-long video, shot in May 2023, was filmed by another colleague and is just one incident among hundreds uncovered in newly released public documents. The broadcaster looked into Affinity Education - which runs 250 childcare centres across the country - after NSW Greens MP Abigail Boyd petitioned the state's childcare regulator to release a tranche of industry regulatory paperwork. One former Affinity employee said cost cutting at her workplace had reduced the staff-to-child ratios to worrying levels and 'caused serious incidents in the centre'. The former staff member said young, untrained workers were being hired because they were cheaper than experienced educators with years of good references. She said the video was a symptom of that larger problem. The childcare worker in the video was convicted of common assault and given a community corrections order. She was also banned by the regulator from working in childcare for 12 months. The colleague who filmed the video resigned. Affinity CEO Tim Hickey said the 'safety, wellbeing, and development of every child' must be the first priority. He said the business had acted swiftly after it was informed of the incident by police. 'I want to express again how profoundly sorry I am that something like this could occur to any child in our care. 'These incidents are not representative of the dedicated, professional team who care for children every day across thousands of centres.' Another 2023 incident investigated by the regulator involved a worker, captured on CCTV in the south-west Sydney suburb of Elderslie, pulling a small child by the arm across the floor of a childcare centre. A further incident from Epping in Sydney's north saw a child require medical treatment for a dislocated elbow after an educator grabbed them by the wrist and yanked them backwards. That staff member was also banned from working in childcare for 12 months. The documents detail scores of other similar shocking incidents. The ABC claimed that between 2021 and 2024 Affinity Education centres in NSW were hit with more than 1,700 regulatory breaches. It was issued nine infringements notices and received less than $2,000 in penalties. Affinity is owned by a private equity firm and runs childcares centres under three marquee brands Milestones, Papilio and Kids Academy.
ABC News
11-05-2025
- ABC News
Video shows childcare worker hitting baby and laughing about it at Affinity Education centre
The video is sickening. A baby cries hysterically in a bouncer as a childcare worker slaps her across the face — again and again — for fun. It was filmed at an Affinity Education centre in South Strathfield in Sydney's inner west in May 2023. A colleague recorded the abuse for entertainment to be posted on Snapchat with a laughing emoji. The footage is just nine seconds long, but it highlights ongoing systemic issues around staffing, oversight and safety inside the billion-dollar enterprise. It is one of many disturbing revelations in a 7.30 investigation into one of Australia's biggest childcare operators, Affinity. Owned by private equity, Affinity runs 250 centres nationwide, including the brands Papilio, Milestones and Kids Academy. It is part of a system where profit is too often prioritised over safety and care and the regulator is not up to the job, experts warn. Over recent months the ABC has gained access to the largest cache of internal regulatory documents ever released in NSW, triggered by a parliamentary order obtained by Greens MP Abigail Boyd. Together with leaked company files and video footage obtained by the ABC, the investigation reveals a sector in crisis, where child-to-staff ratios are routinely breached, supervision is poor, and the quality of experience and education is declining. This has contributed to an increase in reported serious incidents, instances of inappropriate discipline, and concerns about record keeping in some centres. Ms Boyd and insiders said, in too many cases, the regulator's response was limited to paperwork and warnings despite it having a broad range of enforcement tools at its disposal including enforceable undertakings, fines, prohibition notices, suspension and cancellation of provider approvals. As the newly elected federal government moves toward universal childcare, parents, educators and experts are demanding that quality be made a priority, not just affordability. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sees early childhood education as part of his legacy. But so far, his focus has been on expanding subsidies, not fixing the cracks in care, staffing and regulation that put children at risk daily. Former Affinity employees such as Loretta Dodwell, who worked at a centre in Queensland, describe a culture that is toxic. "The cost cutting and the lack of staff really caused serious incidents in the centre," she told 7.30. Ms Dodwell said at Affinity it was always about keeping costs down, including wages, which are the biggest cost of running a centre. "They were also putting on lots of trainees, like young trainees that were cheap to employ and that put a lot of pressure on the qualified staff," she said. She said the baby-slapping video was a symptom of hiring the wrong people and not enough supervision or checks and balances. Affinity said in a statement it acted quickly after being notified of the incident by the police. It said it had zero tolerance for any form of child harm. "The safety, wellbeing, and development of every child must always come first," Affinity CEO Tim Hickey said in a statement after declining an interview. "I want to express again how profoundly sorry I am that something like this could occur to any child in our care," he said, noting that while a single failing was one too many, "these incidents are not representative of the dedicated, professional team who care for children every day across thousands of centres." One worker was sacked and the other resigned. The educator who hit the baby was convicted of common assault and handed a community corrections order — no fine, no jail. In response to the incident and breaches, the regulator required Affinity to conduct refresher training for managers on child protection and reporting obligations, amend some policies and provide evidence that all staff had completed an online module titled Nurturing, Safe and Positive Interactions. It banned the worker who abused the baby from working in child care for a year. In a compliance notice sent to Affinity in August 2023, the regulator said during the investigation the two educators had "obstructed" officers by providing false and misleading statements through internal documents. Ms Dodwell said terminating individual staff members did not address the broader environment and cultural issues. "They [Affinity] are just not suitable to be in the childcare industry because they are just so greedy," she said. "They cut staff, they put the staff under so much pressure … they're just a big company that wants to make money out of children." Another former Affinity worker, Chey Carter, said Affinity was always about business outcomes, not child safety. "I observed a lot of good, but also bad. Children were being hurt … noncompliance and maintenance just being ignored and a toxic culture being promoted. "We were encouraged to compete against each other for the highest occupancy or who can do better out of business outcomes which harms the staff and the children. And I participated in that myself," she said. Ms Carter worked across more than 10 Affinity centres before leaving in 2021. She now runs a childcare consultancy and says many workers discuss low pay, bad working conditions and a fear of making incident reports when something goes wrong or they see rules being breached. She said there was too much under-reporting across child care, including when she worked at Affinity. "When workers tried to raise concerns, they were punished," she said. "Every time you tried to report something, you were penalised." In one recent case, a mother said she picked up her 17-month-old son from an Affinity centre in Canberra and immediately knew something was wrong. "He usually runs to us, and he took a couple of steps and got upset," she said. She said she asked the educator how he was and was told everything was fine. Affinity said in a statement it told the boy's parents the child was not himself and asked if they would like to pick him up. She said when she got home her son was lethargic, staring into space and did not want dinner. The next day his arm had swollen to twice its normal size, so she took him to hospital for some tests. At the hospital, scans confirmed a spiral fracture, an injury that can be caused by forceful twisting, which can snap the bone. She said she called the centre and they were adamant it did not happen there. "The orthopaedic surgeon at the hospital said it wasn't the kind of injury from falling and the suggestion was someone had hurt him." "I still don't know how he got the fracture," she said. She said they lost all trust in the centre and pulled him out. Affinity said it notified the department and launched an investigation. It said there had been no regulatory notices or concerns raised in relation to the incident. At a centre in Elderslie, in south-west Sydney, CCTV showed a toddler being yanked by the arm by an educator and pushed across a room in 2023. Documents show that in 2024 the same centre had issues with expired food, hygiene and paperwork breaches. Another shocking video at a centre in Epping, in Sydney's north-west, captures an educator forcefully grabbing the wrist of a child, dragging them backwards and causing a dislocation of the elbow, requiring medical attention. Hundreds of regulatory documents for Affinity centres paint a disturbing picture of what is happening behind closed doors. A compliance notice issued by the NSW regulator in July 2023 to the Epping centre referred to the dislocated elbow and said Affinity had racked up 79 breaches of inappropriate discipline and 51 compliance actions across its NSW network since 2021. It said the compliance history showed it had failed to take reasonable steps to ensure staff and supervisors followed required policies under Regulation 168, which mandated that all services had specific procedures in place. It said it needed to take steps to address this. The worker was banned for 12 months. At Milestones Raby, in south-west Sydney, a disturbing pattern of behaviour spans years. CCTV from 2022 shows a worker towering over a crying boy, then grabbing him from behind and lifting him roughly. That educator remained on staff and was issued only a warning. In 2023 an educator was terminated after CCTV revealed she had used a child to mop up vomit. In 2024, regulatory documents reveal another worker was banned for 12 months after dragging a child 8 metres, including up a cement ramp. Between 2021 and 2024, Affinity centres in NSW were hit with more than 1,700 regulatory breaches, averaging more than one a day. Despite this, the NSW regulator issued just nine infringement notices, totalling less than $2,000 in penalties. Ms Boyd said from the documents she has read and parents she has spoken with, she was concerned the regulator, the NSW Early Childhood Education and Care Regulatory Authority, was not doing enough to hold providers — and some educators — accountable. "The regulator isn't effective," she said. "The regulatory system here is about encouraging businesses and investment in a sector. "It's not about keeping kids safe. "And that's really, really obvious from all of the documents, the lack of consequences, the dismissive way in which the regulator is dealing with these operators," she said. Regulatory documents reveal Affinity centres being breached for hygiene issues, expired food and milk on the premises, broken furniture, staff out of ratio, and deficient paperwork including expired working-with-children checks, qualifications of staff and medical histories of children. In most cases, they are told to do better by the regulator. The list of incidents is long. At a Milestones centre in Armidale in NSW's northern tablelands in January 2023, a toddler was put down to rest and then vomited up two metal hooks used to hang fairy lights. At a centre in Cooma in the Snowy Mountains, a child was found wandering in the car park and the regulator was not informed. Police sources told us a male educator at another centre was recently charged with nine counts of sexually touching a child. In Bathurst, Mikaela Cummings said her daughter Willow was violently shaken by an educator at Affinity's Papilio centre a few days before her third birthday in January this year. She said, months later, her daughter was still getting night terrors. "I was told that she [the educator] chased her in from outside," she said. "She yelled at her, picked her up above her head and shook her violently. … Shaking a child, let alone a little toddler, isn't healthy for them, and then also to know that there was no medical attention given to her just to see if she was OK afterwards …" The family was not informed for nine days, which is a breach of the regulations. When the family requested the incident report, it did not include Willow's name. It had been written the day they asked for it. Ms Cummings said when she asked to freeze payments while an investigation was conducted, she was hit with bills. "I'm over $1,000 in arrears," she said. Mikaela's mother Lucinda said the centre treated children "like numbers on a spreadsheet". "No-one ever reached out about Willow's wellbeing. They only cared about the money." After 7.30 contacted Affinity, it wiped the debt. Affinity said it apologised to the family for a failure to inform them of the incident in a timely manner. It said it launched an investigation and notified the regulator. It said when such breaches occurred, staff were subject to "appropriate remedial measures" which could include additional training, counselling or dismissal. In this case it said it took "appropriate action to address the lapse" and there had been changes to management. It said the parents had not paid any fees since January and it continued to keep their place open at their request. In south-west Sydney, Frankie Scott said her daughter Stevie carried physical and emotional scars from her time at Affinity's Spring Farm centre between 2020 and 2023. She said when Affinity bought the centre in 2022 things went downhill. Good staff left and turnover was high, she said. "They were getting two-minute noodles … The toys there were broken, and I'd pick her up at 5:30 or 6pm and she would be in the same pull-up, and it would be heavily soiled." She said her daughter would come home with unexplained bruises and cuts. One time she had to take her to hospital for treatment to a cut on her head. "She was just so distressed going there [to the centre] … it wasn't safe. "And it really damaged her, her mental health as well as her physical health," she said, noting that as a single mother she had no other option. "They'd always keep the front area, like the foyer, very presentable, clean, meticulous. But you'd go into the rooms, and it would just be a nightmare." Within a year of Affinity taking over, the centre's rating plunged from "exceeding" to failing the National Quality Standards — the benchmark for safety, staffing and education. Breaches included unqualified staff, medication lapses, children left unsupervised and fake credentials. The centre was finally suspended for three months. Ms Boyd said the regulator acted only after media pressure. "If that doesn't tell you all that's wrong with this sector, I don't know what does," she said. Affinity said COVID-19 was partly to blame for the decline in ratings. It said it had been working with the regulator to improve compliance and had improved its safety. It said the regulator suspended its licence for three months, effective May 5. "The decision is disappointing as we have been working directly with the regulator to improve systems and processes to facilitate ongoing compliance at Spring Farm," it said. Affinity is not alone. Three-quarters of long daycare centres in Australia are now run for profit. Gabrielle Meagher, an emeritus professor at Macquarie University and a leading expert on privatised social services, warned this came at the expense of quality. She pointed to overwhelming evidence showing that for-profit providers delivered lower-quality services on average compared with their non-profit equivalents. Of the 300 to 400 new centres opening in Australia each year, 95 per cent are for-profit. Only one of the 10 largest providers is non-profit. The other nine are controlled by private equity firms, publicly listed companies and international investment groups, all driven by profit rather than child welfare. For investors, the childcare sector is an attractive opportunity, thanks to billions of dollars in government subsidies and grants underwriting the business. Since private equity firm Quadrant bought Affinity in 2021 for $650 million, it has expanded from 150 to 250 centres, or an average of one extra centre every two weeks. In 2021, its rate of compliance actions per centre was more than double the NSW average. By 2024, that gap had widened even further, with Affinity recording more than triple the rate of regulatory action compared to other providers. In 2021, Affinity's confirmed breaches per centre were about 30 per cent higher than the NSW average. By 2024, that gap had widened to more than 70 per cent. "They have almost double the amount of serious incidents in their centres compared to everyone else and yet they're allowed to have over double the amount of staffing waivers," Ms Boyd said. A staffing waiver is formal exemption granted by the regulator that allows a service to temporarily operate without meeting the usual staffing requirements such as presence of early childhood teachers. "That's down to the regulator. The regulator keeps giving them a free pass despite their performance being so much worse than everyone else. "They're allowed to expand and expand and expand." The NSW Early Childhood Education and Care Regulatory Authority declined to be interviewed but said in a statement the safety of children was its highest priority and the foundation of all its work. It said: "NSW is in discussions with all other jurisdictions that the fines and penalty infringement notices in the National Law are inadequate and require significant review." It said that when considering service approvals and transfers, it took into account the provider's compliance history and quality trend across all of its services and it said waivers were only issued in limited circumstances, with child safety the most important consideration. It said it had a number of regulatory tools available including infringement notices, banning orders, enforceable undertakings, prosecutions and centre closures. Last year it banned 60 people from the industry and cancelled the service or provider approvals of 63 due to compliance or safety risks. Under the National Quality Standards, which set the benchmark for safety, education, staffing and wellbeing, centres with staffing waivers are not meeting the requirements for qualified educators. "If you have a waiver on staffing, you're not meeting the quality standard that relates to staffing," Professor Meagher said. She estimated that Affinity held staffing waivers for 23 per cent of its centres, which is well above the sector average and is despite it operating no centres in remote areas, where staffing shortages are more common. She said on average, those waivers lasted 17 months, with some stretching to two or three years, which is much longer than the sector-wide average of 13 months. Affinity said almost 18 per cent of its centres had a waiver, with the majority of those in NSW. It said it never used waivers as a cost-saving measure and that waivers helped support a challenging workforce market. It said more than 90 per cent of its centres met or exceeded the national quality standards. Professor Meagher's research shows for-profit providers rely more heavily on staffing waivers, but also keep them in place longer, and employ fewer qualified educators than non-profit centres. Nationally, Professor Meagher estimates that nearly 30 per cent of centres are either working towards meeting the national quality standards, have never been rated, or are operating under a waiver. With reassessments of centres occurring once every four years on average, she said parents could not rely on quality ratings as a true reflection of care. "You do wonder why they are allowed to keep opening new centres when they can't staff the centres that they've already got," she said. Professor Meagher said the government needed to do more. "Governments aren't paying enough attention to the kinds of providers that are coming into the system because it's quick and easy for them to leave it to the private sector," she said, noting it was hard to regulate it without enough resources, which made it hard for parents to know if the care their children were getting was high quality. For parents like Mikaela Cummings, who is now too afraid to send her child to childcare, the failures of Australia's childcare system are profound. "The trust that's been broken is unforgivable," she said. Her mother, Lucinda, said what happened to her granddaughter Willow and the way Affinity handled it opened her eyes to the state of child care in this country. "I think families in Australia need to understand the crisis that child care is currently in, so a complete and immediate overhaul of the whole system takes place for the sake of the safety and wellbeing of these children." Watch this story tonight on 7.30 on ABC TV and iview
