Grim reason Australia’s childcare abuse safeguards always fail | Samantha Maiden

Australia is again trying to figure out what to do with shocking allegations of sickening abuse at the hands of a childcare worker, writes Samantha Maiden.

When Queensland childcare worker Ashley Paul Griffith was sentenced to life in prison for sexually abusing 73 young girls in Brisbane, an interim report warned how the current system “may result in a false sense of security”.

The man dubbed perhaps Australia’s worst pedophile had “met all requirements to obtain and maintain a Blue Card” – the state’s working with children check system – until his arrest on 1623 charges of child abuse.

“The Blue Card system is not designed to collect information on early indicators of harm or to identify patterns over time and across organisations, particularly where complaints about a person have been investigated and found to be unsubstantiated due to a lack of evidence,” the report said.

The implementation of a reportable conduct scheme in Queensland will commence in 2026 and it is hoped will improve the collation and sharing of this type of information.

This week, amid allegations another childcare worker, Joshua Dale Brown, has sexually abused children in Victoria, some of those observations are important to revisit.

The childcare worker has been charged but is yet to face trial.

The 26-year-old is accused of abusing eight young children between April 2022 and January 2023 and his work at 20 centres across Victoria has sparked the testing of more than 1200 children for sexually transmitted infections out of “an abundance of caution”.

Parents and grandparents around Australia are understandably distressed and in shock over the latest allegations that centre on the new childcare worker in Victoria.

On Channel 9, TV host Sylvia Jeffries, a mother of young children, broke down in tears insisting that fixing the problem should be the federal government’s highest priority.

The tricky part, however, is working out what works and finding the reforms that will make a real difference.

It’s a big question: how do you stop the sexual abuse of children which has occurred in Australia and around the world for centuries, long before the advent of mobile phones?

It is also a grim reality that pedophiles are always going to try to seek employment where they have access to children, whether that’s at the local footy club or a kindergarten.

Melbourne alleged sex abuser Joshua Brown. Picture Supplied.,

Consider this. Two years ago, the first nationally representative research into the prevalence of child sexual offending behaviours and attitudes revealed one in five Australian men reported sexual feelings towards children and one in 10 of those surveyed admitted they had abused children.

Of the men who reported sexual feelings, 29.6 per cent wanted help. That’s around 4.5 per cent of Australian men.

It’s a potent reminder that any reform options for the childcare sector need to look more closely about prevention, not simply how to strengthen the existing system.

But there are a multitude of issues to be tackled.

According to the report by the Queensland Child Death Review Board, there were also fears that concerns about defamation and other legal risks may deter individuals from raising concerns within the childcare sector.

As is the case for sexual crimes against women and children, Queensland police also noted “the high evidentiary threshold” for prosecution.

“Officers must be satisfied there is sufficient evidence to prove a matter beyond reasonable doubt. This is especially difficult for young children who may not be able to talk or have a limited vocabulary,” the progress report said.

There were also big concerns around how to track staff when the sector is so highly casualised, along with the “robustness” of referee checks.

“Unclear information-sharing processes and a fear of privacy breaches may also create an environment where early indicators of potential harm are minimised,’’ the report found.

“This impacts the system’s capacity to detect child sexual abuse, including by identifying patterns over time and across services.”

The reality, of course, is that the vast majority of childcare centres and childcare workers are hardworking and caring educators who, in most cases, have been historically underpaid.

But big changes that have been long delayed are being rolled out.

Victorian childcare workers are now set to be banned from having their personal devices on them in centres across the state, under new government reforms.

The ban on personal devices could be rolled out nationally. In the case of Ashley Paul Griffith, many of his crimes were captured in disturbing videos and photos.

It is a grim thought that without these videos, police may never have had the evidence to convict him of his horrific crimes.

Originally published as Grim reason Australia’s childcare abuse safeguards always fail | Samantha Maiden