Content warning:
The following piece contains highly distressing themes and details.
Victoria has launched a six-week review into the safety of childcare centres, after a 26-year-old worker was charged with 70 offences.
Advocates are calling for a national childcare regulator and greater scrutiny over Working With Children Check applications.
The Federal Government is facing questions over how it will ensure safety in childcare facilities, which are funded at the national level.
The charges
Joshua Brown, 26, was arrested on 12 May. Victoria Police have since charged him with 70 offences relating to eight victims at a childcare centre in Point Cook in Melbourne between April 2022 and January 2023.
The charges include child rape, attempted child rape, and producing child abuse material.
Police said the victims were aged between five months and two-years-old at the time of the alleged offences.
Brown had a valid Working With Children Check (WWCC), which authorities say has now been cancelled.
Victoria’s Health Department says it has contacted around 2,600 families who have attended childcare centres where the accused worked.
It has recommended about 1,200 children “undergo testing for infectious diseases due to potential exposure risk”.
Brown is due to face court in September.
Victoria's response
On Wednesday, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan announced childcare centres in the state must ban personal phones at work by 26 September.
Centres that don’t comply face fines of up to $50,000.
A ban on personal devices in childcare centres is also being worked on at a national level, but Victoria decided to bring this forward.
Review
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Separately, the Victorian Government has commissioned a six-week review of the sector, focusing on “immediate actions we can take,” Allan said.
The review will consider whether CCTV can be installed in childcare centres, among other issues.
Former South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill and Chair of the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority Pamela White will lead the review, which is due by 15 August.
Allan has already said the Government will accept its recommendations.
Victoria's Opposition
Victorian Shadow Attorney-General Michael O’Brien said there had been “clear warnings” of loopholes in the childcare system for years.
“People can get a Working With Children Check (WWCC) — even if they’re under active police investigation for crimes relating to children.”
Shadow Education Minister Jess Wilson added that CCTV should be installed at centres immediately, rather than waiting for the August review.
National
Attorneys-general at the federal and state levels will look into nationalising applications and databases for the WWCC. At the moment, it is a state-based qualification.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said on Wednesday the change “can’t happen soon enough.”
“It’s taken too long to do the work necessary to make sure that our working with children check system is up to scratch.”
Advocacy group The Parenthood has also called for an independent Early Childhood Commission to oversee the industry.
CEO Georgie Dent said a Commission would “ensure that public money is used well, that children are protected, and that services are accountable”.
The Federal Government spent $18 billion on childcare in 2023/24, including wage increases and childcare subsidies.
The Coalition has said it will back the Government’s efforts to “ensure our child protection systems are as strong, transparent, and accountable as they must be to prevent such a tragedy from occurring again.”
