Pressure grows on Labor for answers on childcare safety crisis

Political pressure is growing on the state government over its four-month failure to hire a full-time commissioner for children as the state confronts its worst childcare safety crisis.

On Wednesday, the Liberal opposition and the Greens also criticised Minister for Children Lizzie Blandthorn, who they say “was nowhere to be seen” after this masthead revealed detailed warnings to the government that children were in danger went unheeded for years before the Joshua Dale Brown scandal erupted.

Deputy Premier Ben Carroll instead fronted the media, saying the commissioner for children and young people role must be filled urgently, and that the state’s rapid review of the childcare sector would look into the government’s failure to heed the former commissioner’s warnings on child sexual abuse over several years.

The review, led by former South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill and called after the charges against former childcare worker Brown were made public this month, will report on August 15.

Childcare worker Joshua Brown has been charged with 70 offences related to child sexual abuse.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

This masthead revealed on Wednesday that Victoria’s former commissioner for children and young people, Liana Buchanan, had long predicted in her warnings to the government that the continued underfunding of a vital oversight scheme administered by the Commission for Children and Young People would result in the abuse of children.

Substantiated allegations that Brown had acted violently towards children in his care were reported to the Reportable Conduct Scheme for review but were not escalated to a suspension of his working with children check.

Brown now stands accused of abusing eight preschoolers at a Point Cook childcare centre in 2022 and 2023, with more allegations being investigated in a case that has prompted authorities to call for thousands of children to be tested for sexually transmitted infections.

Responding on Wednesday to revelations about Buchanan’s warnings, Carroll said the rapid review would “look at everything”.

“We’re going to implement all the recommendations, and if it does include changes to the system around families, children, the Reportable Conduct Scheme, for example, yes, certainly we’ll accept those recommendations and make those changes,” Carroll said.

Buchanan repeatedly pleaded with the government for more money to run the scheme, which has not had its funding increased since it began in 2017, despite a 136 per cent growth in the number of cases it was asked to examine each year.

Education Minister Ben Carroll says the children’s commissioner role must be filled urgently.Credit: Chris Hopkins

The former commissioner bluntly warned that the continued lack of funding would result in children being abused by people who could and should have been removed from the system.

With the commissioner’s role still vacant – four months after Buchanan’s departure and with acting commissioner Meena Singh holding down two full-time jobs – Carroll said Blandthorn was urgently trying to fill the role, but he did not say when the government would announce a replacement.

“I know minister Blandthorn is working on it,” Carroll said.

“I know Meena Singh. She’s an excellent advocate, well experienced, but yep, we’ll work on that. It needs to be filled with urgency.

“There’s no more important role in society than investing in our young people. This is a critical appointment.”

But Liberal education spokesperson Jess Wilson said that Blandthorn should have been out explaining the government’s conduct.

“The childcare system is in crisis, parents’ trust has been shattered and the minister is nowhere to be seen,” Wilson said.

“Ministerial accountability might be a foreign concept to the Allan Labor government, but the minister must take responsibility for the systemic failings on her watch and front up to answer questions.”

Victorian Greens early childhood spokesperson Anasina Gray-Barberio said the duration of the vacancy at the top of the commission was “unacceptable”.

“It’s yet more proof that childcare hasn’t been a priority for this Labor government,” Gray-Barberio said.

“Our childcare system is in crisis, there’s been no commissioner for months, and the minister for children who is responsible is nowhere to be seen. Labor ministers love to disappear when things get hard, but Labor can’t dodge accountability this time.”

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