Education Minister’s silence as child-on-child sex assaults in Qld childcare centres soar

Premier David Crisafulli says Qld parents deserved a response from his own Education Minister who initially declined to comment after horrific reports of child-on-child assaults occurring in childcare centres. Now, he’s finally responded.

Queensland Education Minister John Paul Langbroek has “politely declined” to comment. Picture: Supplied by the Department of the Premier/Tertius Pickard.

• Editor’s view: Silence fails parents

Queensland parents deserved a response from the Education Minister following horrific reports of assaults occurring in childcare centres, Premier David Crisafulli has said, reminding his cabinet they need to respond to journalist’s questions on matters involving their portfolio.

The Courier-Mail this week made multiple attempts to engage Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek after two fathers revealed their children had been subject to sexual assault at the hands of other children in Queensland childcare centres.

About 5pm on Saturday, Mr Langbroek delivered a response, saying in a statement that his department was treating the incidents with the “utmost sensitivity”, while not commenting on why the response hadn’t come sooner.

“I know these incidents are deeply distressing for the families involved,” he said.

“We take the safety of children very seriously.

“Even though the early learning centres in question are not state-run, it doesn’t mean we won’t take action and make changes if necessary, which is why the Regulatory Authority’s work is so critical.”

It comes after child protection warrior Hetty Johnston has called for urgent change at childcare centres amid a rise in child-on-child sexual assaults.

But questions on what Mr Langbroek thought of the rise in child-on-child abuse, transparency issues between childcare staff and parents and whether more training to better respond to the disturbing trend went unanswered.

Mr Langbroek, who is directly responsible for early childhood education and care matters, chose to “politely decline”.

Mr Crisafulli on Saturday said he “of course” expected ministers in his cabinet to respond to questions relating to their portfolio and that Queensland deserved a response.

“I want parents know that we take the safety of their kids seriously, really seriously,” he said.

“But in terms of the response, Queensland has deserved a response, and that response is that the care of educators, and I can assure you that those positions won’t be cut as they would be.”

Premier David Crisafulli and Minister for Education John-Paul Langbroek. Photo Steve Pohlner

The Premier said Mr Langbroek was engaged in his portfolio matters after having budget discussions two weeks ago regarding future funding for the Early Childhood Regulator – the investigative body that is looking into the two child sexual assaults.

“Under the former government, their funding ran out in 2026 I just think that’s absolutely horrendous,” he said.

“Now, the reason why I know that is John-Paul picked that up and picked it up during the cabinet budget review process, and he came to us and said it was a big issue, and we need find a way to fund so he is, he’s serious about it.”

The state government in January launched an inquiry into child protection system.

The System Response to Child Sexual Abuse review headed by Child and Family Commissioner Luke Twyford will cover child safety at childcare centres.

Mr Crisafulli, asked if better training was needed for childcare staff, said he was open to all ways to make things safer.

“We said, when, when the matter of the horrendous monster that is (Ashley Paul) Griffith came about, you’ll recall how much we spoke about the need to close some of those loopholes, and the loopholes were immense, and that’s why one of the things that we’ll be doing to part of that review is making sure that parents can have confidence that the kids are safe,” he said.

It comes as The Courier-Mail can reveal that a second father has been left traumatised by an alleged sexual assault on his daughter at a Queensland childcare centre.

The revelation from the father of a four-year-old girl comes just one week after another dad told how his four-year-old son was left with an anal tear after an alleged assault by another four-year-old at a different centre.

Both distraught fathers claim their lives have been up-ended by the events, but they were cut off by the childcare centres involved and offered no support or transparency.

“Child-on-child sexual assault is a rising problem that childcare centre staff are simply not equipped to deal with,” Ms Johnston, founder of Safeguarding People Australia, said.

“Not all of these events will be reported and staff need to be aware of what to look out for. How can you deal with something you don’t understand and don’t want to understand as it is too culturally ‘cringe’.”

When Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek was asked for his reaction to the alleged assaults involving young children and the need for more transparency and support from centre staff, he “politely declined” to comment.

When The Courier-Mail made the minister aware of Ms Johnston’s calls for action, Mr Langbroek reiterated his original response.

Hetty Johnston, CEO of Bravehearts says childcare centre staff are simply not equipped to deal with the rise in child-on-child sexual assaults. Picture: Darren England.

Both of the alleged cases disclosed to The Courier-Mail were placed in the hands of the Education Department’s Early Childhood Regulatory Authority.

Ms Johnston is also calling for child and family advocacy centres to be opened in the state, where parents could take their children, and all the right experts would be in one place to offer answers and support.

“It is insane that parents have to live through these kind of things and are left hanging. This is a serious matter and I have been asking for these kind of support centres for years,” she said. Both distraught dads claim the childcare centres denied any assault took place and have offered no help. The father of the boy said that his family was left with no answers.

“Police are unable to do anything due to the ages of the children involved so how do we get the answers. We need to understand what happened on the day he came home with blood in his shorts,” the boy’s father said.

The single father of the girl said the incident just came to a dead end and he had been left to deal with the fallout with his young daughter.

“She is now six and this happened in 2023 and I am still traumatised and it has an impact on her. I was giving her a bath after daycare as I always did and she told me she was very sore down there. When I asked her about it she was brave enough to tell me she had been touched by boy X. We immediately sought medical help and then contacted the police,” he said.

The QPS confirmed it was aware of both cases.

Mr Langbroek on Saturday confirmed he was working through funding arrangements for the regulatory authority, ensuring the 19 full-time staff kept their jobs beyond 2026.

A statement issued by the department on April 23 confirmed the August 2023 incident occurred and was investigated by the authority, however, the matter was closed in September 2023 and no action was taken.

“No compliance issues were identified on the part of the approved provider, therefore the Regulatory Authority could not take any action,” it said.

Mr Langbroek said the 2025 incident report last week remained under investigation.

“To reiterate the statement already issued by my department, the Regulatory Authority did investigate the 2023 incident and it continues to investigate the separate very recent incident,” he said

Originally published as Education Minister’s silence as child-on-child sex assaults in Qld childcare centres soar