Editor’s view: Langbroek’s silence on childcare assaults fails parents

Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek’s silence on recent sex assault claims in childcare centres is both shocking and inexcusable, writes the editor.

Minister for Education John-Paul Langbroek. Picture: NewsWire / Glenn Campbell

Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek’s silence on recent sex assault claims in childcare centres is both shocking and inexcusable.

Calls for reform from parents and child protection advocates are mounting following the harrowing revelations that a four-year-old boy was sexually assaulted by another four-year-old boy at a Queensland childcare centre.

For the thousands of parents who rely on childcare centres to look after their children while they go to work, it is their worst nightmare.

Yet the minister responsible has stayed silent.

The devastated parents of the alleged four-year-old victim said they had felt let down and left in the dark over the trauma and thought an independent investigation and a formal explanation as to what happened was necessary.

They wanted to know how their child could be left alone for so long for something like that to happen, and they wanted transparency and support for other parents unfortunate enough to be in their position.

“Where is the transparency?’’ the father of the allegedly abused child said last week.

“Following the awful case of pedophile Ashley Paul Griffith’s reign of terror in childcare centres I would have thought that every single centre in the state would be going to great lengths to watch children every minute.”

Monster childcare pedophile Ashley Paul Griffith.

It’s not too much to ask.

The Griffith case shocked the nation – he was sentenced to life in jail for abusing 69 girls while working in childcare centres in Brisbane and Italy over two decades.

The LNP government has vowed to conduct an independent review into the child protection system in relation to Griffith’s case.

But in this instance, even if that review had been completed, it would not have addressed the issue at hand and that is assaults on children by other children.

Child protection advocate Hetty Johnston says the government should look at urgent training for childcare staff around peer-on-peer assaults, saying it was a “rising problem that childcare centre staff are simply not equipped to deal with”.

The Courier-Mail put Ms Johnston’s suggestion to Mr Langbroek’s office, and also asked if he had any reaction to the alleged assaults or a response to calls for more transparency.

Bravehearts founder and senator Hetty Johnston says the government should look at urgent training for childcare staff around peer-on-peer assaults.

Via his office, he “politely declined” to respond to any questions.

That is simply not good enough, minister.

This is an issue important to thousands of Queensland parents unfolding within your portfolio.

No one is expecting authorities to start legal action against four-year-old children in childcare centres.

But can the circumstances surrounding such incidents be investigated? Absolutely.

The minister should be ordering his department to look at current protocols, whether there are any gaps that need addressing and – importantly – let the public know what they are doing.

Because the bottom line is that every parent has a right to believe that when they drop their child off to a daycare centre, they will be safe. And for that to happen, they need to be confident that the government has put the protections and protocols in place to protect their children from harm.