Federal sanctions: List of childcare centres at risk of losing funding.

Services where hefty fines have been issued after children were force fed, subjected to unreasonable discipline or allowed to escape onto busy roads will come under renewed scrutiny under a new federal law.

Australian childcare services that have left children in high chairs for six hours, let them wander onto busy roads or caused them to have anaphylactic shocks are at risk of losing federal funding.

Each week, two childcare centres nationally allow children to be seriously injured, harmed or escape, leading to serious enforcement action, suspension or even closure.

New powers moved this week give the government the ability to cut funding from child care centres that don’t meet quality safety standards, break the law or put children at risk.

Officials also have more power to conduct random spot checks at centres without a warrant.

Education Minister Jason Clare said there was a “list of the centres that we can and will target with this legislation.”

“The regulators already tell us they know where to target this legislation at the centres that they repeatedly go to, and they’re not meeting standards,” he said on Wednesday.

Services where hefty fines have been issued after children were force-fed, subjected to unreasonable discipline or allowed to use a public toilet unsupervised on an excursion will come under renewed scrutiny.

Some of these centres are repeat offenders attracting escalating enforcement action.

Despite families paying record fees, and the government pouring billions into the sector, serious incidents continue to mount.

This is despite the arrest of pedophile Ashley Griffith in Queensland in August 2022, which prompted a large number of reviews, policy overhauls and promises from politicians around the country.

However, this masthead can reveal that since this time around 300 centres have been slapped with sanctions over standards over a range of issues including safety, neglect and harm to children.

The charging of Victorian childcare worker Joshua Brown this month with 73 offences relating to eight alleged victims in his care prompted widespread concern that not more is being done to keep children safe.

Melbourne alleged sex abuser Joshua Brown. Picture Supplied.,

It comes as the latest national ratings snapshot shows 1478 childcare services nationally are not meeting standards – nearly one in ten.

National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds said: “Why are successive governments only acting now, ten years after they were told what needed to happen?”

“We need a Minister for Children and a national priority in national cabinet for child safety and wellbeing.”

Carolyn Smith, Early Education Director, United Workers Union, said the union supported the legislation that cut funding to poor performing childcare centres.

Here are the services that have recently faced sanctions.

NSW

In NSW, the federal Department of Education suspended Fairfield woman Quing Wei’s approval for her Cuddly Bear Pre-School and Long Day Care service in December 2024, citing “an imminent threat to the health or safety of a child because of the care provided”.

Cuddly Bear had received almost $331,780 in inclusion support funding from the federal government since 2016.

The NSW Department of Education has cancelled approvals for five providers already in 2025, including Babyheroes Origin in Carlton, Bundeena Before and After School Care, and Live and Learn Academy Taree operator Firmus Domus.

In 2024, Kids’ Kinder Care was fined $38,650 for force feeding children and leaving them in highchairs for up to six hours, Jumpstart Childcare was fined $186,620 for subjecting children to unreasonable discipline, and Funtime Childcare was fined $12,500 after a four-year-old escaped. And in 2023, Little Triumphs Childcare was fined $51,000 for failing to supervise children at a shopping centre and for allowing them to wander near traffic and use a toilet unattended.

Childcare centre owner (right) Thomas Fanous has pleaded guilty to neglecting children under the care of the centre he owned, Kids Kinder in Menai, which has since closed.

VIC

Since 2020, more than 130 childcare operators across Victoria have been sanctioned for putting kids at risk, with the highest number of incidents in Point Cook, Truganina and Tarneit, where working families are desperate for safe, affordable care.

Children have escaped from childcare, been disciplined inappropriately, cared for by criminals, housed in unsafe premises and exposed to harm, newly released data from the state enforcement action register shows.

So far in 2025, four enforcement notices have been issued, with 38 centres sanctioned in 2024 – the highest in five years.

The 2025 sanctions include an emergency action notice for Bambini Child Care, with parents warned their children were at “immediate risk” in February.

More than 50 family day care centres operated by Bambini were shut temporarily while safety audits were completed after the death of a baby.

QLD

In Queensland in the past three years, 17 childcare operators have faced serious enforcement action, including prosecution. The most recent was John Paul College Outside School Hours Care, which was fined $15,000 in June after two children left the service.

Last year, Le Smiley Early Learning in Gracemere was fined $50,000 for leaving a three-year-old girl left stranded on the hot daycare bus for six hours just metres from the centre. The girl, Nevaeh Austin, survived after being flown to a Brisbane hospital despite being given a five per cent chance of survival.

A young girl, Nevaeh Austin, was found in a parked bus at Le Smileys Early Learning Centre in Gracemere. Photo – Steve Vit

Affinity Education Group, operating Milestones Early Learning The Lakes, was also fined $35,000 for leaving a child on the bus.

Sanctuary Early Learning Adventure Maudsland, KidCademy Early Learning Centres and Genius Learning Chermside were also fined after children left the service.

Rochedale Kids Early Learning was fined $24,000 after workers gave a baby the wrong formula, which caused an anaphylaxis reaction.

TAS

In Tasmania in the past three years, one emergency notice was issued to Lady Gowrie Gordon Square in George Town for children being unsupervised on an excursion in January 2024 and a child left the service multiple times. The incidents also sparked multiple enforcement proceedings. Two other centres have been given compliance notices for failing to protect children from harm, including St Aloysious Outside School Hours Care and Gumnut Long Day Care, Penguin.

SA

In South Australia in 2025 so far there have been 40 serious sanctions issued to a number of childcare services, with one operator, Little Shining Stars, facing 16 separate actions at five centres in Virginia, Evanston, Klemzig, Pooraka and Wayville.

In July, three female childcare workers at Little Shining Stars, Klemzig, were sacked following revelations of inappropriate discipline practices and “nappy rash” images of children stored on-site.

On January 31 Genius Childcare Blair Athol became the first South Australian childcare centre to be forced to close for 14 days to address risks posed to children relating to hygiene, damaged fencing and a fire alarm that didn’t work.

And in August 2024 at Goodstart Early Learning in Blair Athol, two children had escaped through a broken fence onto Main North Rd. The toddlers were captured on video wandering near the road.

The centre received a compliance notice over the incident – one of 43 sanctions issued to SA services in 2024 and 2023.

NT

There are no enforcement actions currently published by the NT government.

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Originally published as Federal sanctions: List of childcare centres at risk of losing funding.