We can no longer ignore Australia’s systemic failures in keeping kids safe
The childcare sector in Australia is in “crisis” but these high-profile cases are evidence of something much more concerning.
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Horror stories from the “crisis” hit childcare sector keep coming but a chilling warning has been issued that there’s a much bigger problem, with grave concerns for Australia’s children.
After it was revealed earlier this month that accused childcare sex offender Joshua Dale Brown had been charged with more than 70 offences against eight children, aged between five months and two years old, the Australian childcare industry has come under intense scrutiny.
National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds said there were “shocking” incidents from the childcare sector with stories now coming out almost daily, including a man charged with indecently treating a child at a Brisbane childcare centre – but there are broader systematic failures that have been left to fester for decades.
Ms Hollonds believes “successive governments have failed our children” as they have ignored the need to act on recommendations from the likes of the Royal Commissions Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which filed its final report in 2017, and other inquiries on ways to keep children safe.
“There are issues within the early childhood sector that need to be addressed, but it’s a much bigger problem,” she told news.com.au.
“The Royal Commission’s recommendations were about protecting children wherever they are. “That includes sporting clubs, holiday programs, after school programs, out of home care, youth detention centres and workplaces. I’ve heard some terrible stories about abuse of children in hospitals, disability services, and of course in the home.
“I think it’s evidence of systemic neglect of our children, that we knew what to do and we didn’t do it. And this is not a party political issue. This has been happening for decades, so successive governments have failed our children.”
This week, two brave women spoke out exclusively to news.com.au, naming their abuser for the first time.
Hailey* and Laura-Jane Singh (LJ) were just five and seven years old respectively when they started attending Bluemoor family day care, a childcare care in scenic Batemans Bay, run by David Tuck.
Tuck seemed charismatic on the surface, but had already faced 10 child sexual assault charges in NSW at the time he was awarded a licence by the Eurobodalla Shire Council to run the Bluemoor service.
It is estimated that Tuck – who ran the facility between 1994 and 1999 – sexually abused as many as 55 children in Batemans Bay alone, and possibly many more across his lifetime.
The woman have chosen to speak up to spearhead a national campaign to overhaul safety regulations in Australia’s childcare industry.
Their petition is calling for urgent changes to Australia’s Working With Children Check system, which experts have found is riddled with loopholes that offenders can exploit.
Do you have a childcare or other story to share? Contact sarah.sharples@news.com.au
But we aren’t moving fast enough, and our most vulnerable citizens are at risk.
Ms Hollonds said she wasn’t downplaying the “horrifying” and “dark” issues coming out of the childcare industry, but pointed out change didn’t even occur when one of Australia’s worst pedophiles pleaded guilty last year to 307 charges related to the abuse of children in his care.
Ashley Griffith was sentenced to life in prison for his offending during his time as a childcare worker in Queensland and overseas, which was described as “abhorrent” and “depraved” by the judge.
Regulatory failures and a lack of accountability were key to the overall crisis as child safety issues are handled across both federal and state governments, added Ms Hollonds.
“I think until we address that core issue of making child safety and wellbeing a national priority then there’s just going to be these breakouts of tragic stories happening all over the place,” she warned.
“Unlike women’s safety, which is a priority for national cabinet, which is where the PM and the state and territory leaders work on issues of national significance. You won’t see the word children anywhere on that list of priorities.
“You need that kind of national co-ordination and accountability for action and we have none of that for children.”
It’s why news.com.au is calling for national changes and an inquiry into the childcare sector. University of Sydney academic Dr Erin Harper agrees there must be action.
Dr Harper spent years working in the early childhood education but the heavy workload and quality decline saw her leave, although she vividly remembers desperate mums ringing in tears looking for a different centre after witnessing an “atrocious situation” at their current provider.
In March a NSW parliamentary inquiry was announced into the troubled childcare sector after an ABC investigation with reforms such as the installation of CCTV cameras in centres, a new independent regulator and tougher penalties for offenders.
Victoria is also set to release a report in August after a rapid review but has already announced its own childcare worker registration system, while its inquiry is sure to add to the piles of recommendations already made, Dr Harper acknowledged.
But she believes a national review could critically look beyond just child safety in early education.
“Because it is not isolated. Child safety is impacted and influenced by the quality of our educators’ training, the provider management type, educators workload and their experiences of work and other working conditions, including increasing casualisation of the workforce,” she said.
Dr Harper recently led a study, which included a national survey of 570 early childhood educators, which she said painted “a stark picture of a sector in crisis”.
It found educators spend just 2.5 hours a day of uninterrupted time with children, perform nine unpaid hours of work per week on average and a majority said their workload demands reduce the quality of care they can provide to children.
She said the sector had been “neglected” despite the government pouring billions into it via childcare subsidies.
“Unfortunately, what that means is that in some instances, services will essentially turn that funding into profit,” she said.
“That funding hasn’t been tied in the past to things relating to quality or previously even employing quality educators. It’s great that they’re talking about removing childcare subsidy eligibility from services that have known concerns or breaches. I think that’s an important step forward and it’s one way that we can link funding of the sector to quality but really more needs to be done than that.”
The Albanese government introduced new legislation that will seek to terminate childcare subsidies where providers are guilty of egregious safety breaches, ban operators failing minimum standards from opening new centres and increase unannounced checks via new powers of entry.
“These powers will be used in close collaboration with states and territories, noting their core role in regulating quality and safety in early childhood education and care,” a Department of Education spokesperson told news.com.au.
But high levels of educator burnout, attrition and turnover and an increasingly casualised workforce are also red flags for the sector, according to Dr Harper, as well as the quality of training from private providers.
“Unfortunately, it’s easy to get a certificate III from particular training providers. It’s easy to get a job in an early childhood service because we’re generally understaffed and looking for workers,” she said.
“It’s maybe easier to sort of bounce around across different services and get away with things more easily because of that regular turnover and that inconsistency of staff.”
She also cautioned there was no quick fix for the industry, although some things could be implemented quickly.
“It’s not going to be one simple small thing that we can tick a box and do and then it’s all better now,” she said.
“We need a whole string of action to be able to really make a meaningful, impactful change.”
This includes clarity and transparency from regulatory authorities on how they are rating and assessing services, as well as what compliance action they are taking and a national working with children check which was recommended years ago, she said.
“Clearer and nationally consistent guidelines for not just sharing when someone has been convicted of a crime but also sharing red flags perhaps prior to that professional misconduct too,” she added.
Auditing the quality of training programs, examining the privatisation of the industry and pay parity for educators alongside primary and high school teachers were also crucial, she added.
CCTV has also been touted as a fix by some with major providers such as Affinity Education and G8 Education announcing they would accelerate the rollout of cameras in their centres, but others have warned there are risks of images falling into the wrong hands and the measure doesn’t address understaffing and inadequate training.
Last year, news.com.au revealed a major childcare chain had backflipped on a decision to “cease the recording of CCTV footage” after a backlash from parents, some of whom, were “furious” after being told they would no longer be able to view the footage.
Meanwhile, the government still hasn’t responded to the The Australian Child Maltreatment Study, which found physical, emotional and sexual abuse and exposure to domestic violence were widespread in Australia and was released in 2023, Ms Hollonds added.
She said some of the reporting on the early childhood sector tended to focus on alleged sexual abuse but the issue was broader, with two Sydney childcare workers recently charged with assaulting a 17-month-old boy in their care.
While piecemeal change has been announced so far for the childcare sector and Ms Hollonds applauds the ministers looking to speed up the implementation of recommendations from a decade ago, she warned it needed to go beyond early childhood education.
“This new term of parliament is an opportunity to really send a strong signal to the public. In relation to the early childhood industry, public confidence has taken a big hit. There’s people who are outraged at what’s happened who aren’t even parents,” she said.
“There’s been lots of commentary from people right across the country about how could we have ended up in this situation that our children are so unsafe. I urge the government to take that opportunity to elevate child safety and wellbeing to be a national priority.”
An Attorney-General Department spokesperson said the government wants to make sure children are protected from child sexual abuse and that Australia sets the global standard for child safety.
They said multiple frameworks, including the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse 2021-2030 has been provided and implements about 100 other Royal Commission recommendations.
“Importantly, the National Strategy is broader than the Royal Commission and seeks to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse in all settings, including in institutions, in families, and online,” they said.
“The government and the states and territories are working closely to deliver outcomes under the National Strategy, informed by the Australian Child Maltreatment Study, to reduce the risk, extent and impact of sexual abuse in Australia and to support and empower survivors.”
The Attorney-General has added working with children check reform is top of the agenda of the next meeting of the Standing Council of Attorneys-General, the spokesperson added.
A Department of Education spokesperson said “governments have to do more and providers that aren’t up to scratch have to do more”.
“The National Quality Framework was strengthened in 2023 by embedding National Child Safe Principles and improved record keeping requirements in response to recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which were handed down in 2017,” they added.
“The upcoming Education Ministers Meeting in August will consider further measures to strengthen quality and safety in the ECEC sector, including a national educator register.”
– with Nina Funnell
*Surname withheld for privacy reasons
Originally published as We can no longer ignore Australia’s systemic failures in keeping kids safe
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