Hate crime firebombing leaves 80 families in limbo amid childcare shortage

Eighty families remain in limbo with no long-term child care arrangement following the devastating firebombing of an eastern suburbs day care centre.

Eighty families remain in limbo with no long-term child care arrangement following the devastating firebombing of an eastern suburbs day care centre.

The Only About Children campus in Maroubra was extensively damaged by fire and anti-Semitic graffiti in the early hours of last Tuesday morning.

The attack, described by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as an “evil hate crime”, has left more than 90 kids displaced without a permanent childcare spot.

A spokesman for the campus said all families had been offered temporary places at other OAC campuses across Sydney, while staff worked to find a long-term solution.

“It’s been a difficult week for our families … it’s already a juggle for parents as it is … but we’ve had a lot of support available to help as much as we can,” the spokesman said.

Police and fire forensic investigators working at the childcare centre in Maroubra which was firebombed in an anti-Semitic attack. Picture: NewsWire / Julian Andrews

A NSW Police strike force, set up to investigate a string of anti-Jewish attacks across the city’s eastern suburbs, was bolstered in the aftermath of the firebombing.

No arrests have been made, despite Premier Chris Minns vowing to “round up the bastards” who torched the Storey Street facility.

On Tuesday night, displaced families were due to have a meeting with staff at the centre to discuss longer term solutions, including a temporary ‘pop up’ facility.

“The State and Federal governments, and the council, have all been amazing with their support, and the idea of a pop up in a local community centre is one thing we want to put to the families,” the spokesman said.

The childcare centre in Maroubra on fire.

Inside the damaged childcare centre.

“And if they want that, we really want to pull that together and make it happen.”

The child care sector in Sydney is already under pressure with a chronic shortage of places, rising fees and a lack of staff.

Police handed back the site to the landlord late last week, who will now work with insurance assessors and builders to repair the centre, which is estimated to take several months.

The Maroubra preschool which was set on fire. Picture: Thomas Lisson

Arsonists set fire to the building just before 1am, and scrawled vile graffiti along a carpark wall in what police said was the ninth anti-Semitic attack in the city since October last year.

A motive for the fire remains unclear, but detectives are probing the possibility the centre was wrongly targeted, and that a Jewish centre nearby was the intended target.

Mr Minns visited the scene and said described the targeting of a children’s educational facility as evil.

“It is completely disgusting, these bastards will be rounded up by NSW Police,” Mr Minns said. “It breaks your heart that we have animals in our city who are prepared to burn down a childcare centre to make this point.”

Nine people so far have been arrested and charged under Strike Force Pearl, the police taskforce set up to investigate hate crimes with an anti-Semitic focus across the city.