When Premier Jacinta Allan addressed the media on Wednesday, flanked by Minister for Children Lizzie Blandthorn and the state’s interim co-Chief Health Officer Christian McGrath, there was much talk of the behind-the-scenes preparation ahead of a suppression order lifting, allowing the identification of alleged child sex offender Joshua Dale Brown the previous day.
While Allan pledged “a practical level of support in what is an impossibly difficult time” and “dedicated nurses and public health officials … working around the clock to give families the answers they need”, McGrath conceded that the scale of public concern had forced authorities to increase staffing on their parent advice line.
At one stage in the press conference, he urged the assembled journalists to direct parents to a website if they were not among those directly notified about Brown’s alleged offending.
There are already signs though that the government may have underestimated what Allan called the community’s “huge concern”.
One parent told The Age not enough was being done to reach people from non-English-speaking backgrounds, as he had encountered parents confused about what they needed to do. The diverse cultural makeup of the affected suburbs should have seen proactive measures taken in this regard.
The Department of Health’s notifications have added to the confusion. Initial text messages instructed some parents to have their children tested for gonorrhea and chlamydia, only for later messages to recommend additional testing for syphilis. If, as Allan said, everything was planned “through the frame of how parents would react”, it could surely have been anticipated that the public’s experience of COVID testing would have left them bewildered at waiting for news on the awful prospect of their child being infected with a sexually transmitted disease.
The trauma of having to repeatedly visit clinics for tests as the advice varied has understandably left many parents angry and upset.
A representative of one group told us that children who attended affected childcare centres at the same time had received different sets of advice.
There may be good reasons for this, since McGrath assured reporters that risk had been assessed case by case, but now is the time for as much transparency as possible.
Indeed, there are signs that the distinction McGrath made on Wednesday between parents who need to be notified and those outside the scope of the investigation is breaking down.
Discrepancies between the authorities’ accounts of when Brown worked at certain centres and the recollection of parents and the companies who employed means even more families need to be notified than first thought.
In one such case The Age has seen evidence, provided by parents, that Brown’s employment at Essendon Papilio Early Learning began months before the February 17 date used by authorities as a basis for notifications.
While we appreciate that the investigation into Brown’s activities is ongoing, it is clear that every revision of this sort will have consequences if the government cannot communicate them promptly and clearly. When people’s faith has been so badly shaken, confidence in the remedy will be crucial.
Certainly, little confidence is inspired when it comes to government handling of reform in the sector.
Years of buck-passing between federal and state departments must end. Now. The Age welcomes federal Education Minister Jason Clare’s concession to the bleeding obvious that “ministers haven’t been doing enough, fast enough”.
It is time for a complete reassessment of how childcare is run. There is no shortage of advice on how this might be done swiftly.
In a piece for this masthead, parenting advocate Georgie Dent reminds us that in a report released two years ago, the Productivity Commission recommended the establishment of a National Early Childhood Commission to provide co-ordination on safety, quality, access, workforce and funding.
“This is especially urgent as we move towards a more universal system, where early learning is more affordable and available to all,” Dent notes.
Devices rules, licensing, overhauled work checks and plenty of other changes are rightly on the table.
There also needs to be attention applied to the companies who want to turn caring for our kids into capital. The Australian Shareholders’ Association this week asked pointed questions regarding qualifications and relevant experience of boards running for-profit centres as well as the appropriateness of six figure bonuses.
As Clare noted, none of these things are a silver bullet to prevent the horrifying situation in which Melbourne parents now find themselves.
The aim should not be to stop bad things happening; this is not possible, however uncomfortable that thought might be. Instead, we should be doing all we can to stop bad things happening, and as a society we are falling so clearly short of this mark.
The listed measures above, and plenty of others being suggested, could and should make this a moment that marks a step change in standards for the industry.
If we are going to expect the sort of professional standards at childcare that we rely upon in our children’s schools, then governments can no longer be at arm’s length from the sector – they need to roll up their sleeves and take responsibility.
“I will do everything in my power to make sure parents can trust the system,” Jacinta Allan said as she summed up her aims on Wednesday.
That challenge will be substantial as trust is sorely lacking and confidence is falling. Action is needed.