2 days ago
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Just a day after the Herald raised the question of the oversight of childcare, fresh revelations about the alleged abuse of children have emerged that confirm the urgency of national reforms to the sector.
One of the charges against Victorian childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown is that he recklessly contaminated goods to cause alarm or anxiety, which relates to allegations he added bodily fluids to children’s food.
The 26-year-old is accused of abusing eight young children at a Point Cook centre between April 2022 and January 2023. His work at 20 Victorian facilities over his eight-year career has sparked the testing of more than 1200 children for sexually transmitted infections.
Joshua Dale Brown, 26, has been accused of child sex abuse.
As horrified parents grapple with the latest scandal at a childcare centre, an abuse survivors’ collective has called for a ban on male workers.
The problem here is that childcare is not simply childcare. It is, as the federal government knows, a vital building block in the way modern Australian families live, and it underpins our economy. Put simply, parents cannot work productively unless they can outsource this care for part of the day.
The uproar surrounding the case of Joshua Brown understandably has parents demanding immediate action.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made widened access to childcare a key part of his re-election pitch, and has introduced legislation to guarantee three days of subsidised early education and care universally, with talk of a flat-fee system as part of his second-term vision. His government has also pushed for higher wages for childcare workers.
But this week’s revelations bring us back to fundamental questions about a sector that the Commonwealth and states are anxious to build out rapidly. In March, reporting by the ABC’s Four Corners showed that childcare centres are allowed to continue operating despite falling short of regulatory standards, that regulation is infrequent, and staff are sometimes unqualified. At the time, Albanese insisted that a royal commission into these allegations was unnecessary, since states would be able to investigate such clear wrongdoing.
At a hastily convened press conference on Wednesday, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and her Minister for Children Lizzie Blandthorn implied Victoria was moving quickly on reforming the sector, only to find itself frustrated by the pace of progress at the national level.
In NSW, the government has pledged to have a trial of CCTV in childcare centres, is moving to ban people who have been refused a Working With Children Check (WWCC) from appealing the decision and will establish an independent early childhood regulator.
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These are all badly needed changes. But it is clear that in addition to registration, there needs to be improved training for staff to detect potential offenders – rather than waiting for police to trace them back to childcare centres – and a far stronger regulatory system, at least partially funded by the for-profit childcare centres themselves. At present, the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority does not have the power to enforce action. That must surely change.
Since workers move from one state and territory to another, a national approach is required.
There is no question that commitments to stricter registration, enhanced training and nationwide regulation will add to the sector’s costs. But when it comes to our children, the choice between a service that is cheap and one that is safe and effective is surely no choice at all.
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