ELLEN RANSLEY: Proposed legislation a good first step, but childcare crisis demands complete rethink

The Federal government will introduce new legislation in the first parliamentary sitting fortnight that would give it the power to cut funding from childcare providers not “up to scratch”, in the wake of “sickening” allegations revealed this week.

Alleged paedophile Joshua Brown has been charged with 70 offences against eight children, including child rape and possession of child abuse material.

The 26-year-old, who had a valid working with children check, worked at 20 centres over eight years, and 1200 children have this week been asked to undergo testing for sexually transmitted infections.

Education Minister Jason Clare has admitted the Government has taken “too bloody long” to adequately protect children in early learning care, and as a result “the system has failed these families”.

To urgently address what many in the sector have described as a tipping point, Mr Clare said he would introduce legislation that would cut off funding to childcare centres that failed to keep children safe.

“Parliament returns later this month — I’ll introduce a piece of legislation in the (first) fortnight that will cut funding to childcare centres that aren’t up to scratch when it comes to safety of the children,” he said.

Shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser said the Coalition “stands ready to assist the Government in whatever measures they need to take to ensure that we protect children, and to ensure the proper processes are in place so this never happens again”.

“We won’t be playing politics with this issue at all . . . (These allegations are) the most heinous thing that could happen in the whole childcare industry, and we need to ensure that it never happens again. We need to put in place all necessary measures to protect children and families,” he said.

The charges laid against Brown are the latest in a litany of alleged incidents in childcare centres.

ABC this year unveiled shocking instances of children being slapped, injured through malpractice, force fed, and verbally abused.

It prompted a review, which the country’s education ministers were briefed on at a meeting last Friday.

A separate review into child safety was commissioned after Australia’s worst paedophile Ashley Griffith was arrested — which prompted action on mobile phones and mandatory reporting. Griffith was arrested in 2022 and was last year sentenced to life in prison.

But the shocking allegations revealed this week have thrust the complex design of Australia’s childcare system into the spotlight, and prompted calls for an urgent and complete redesign of the sector.

The Federal Government covers childcare subsidies, which families can spend at the childcare centre of their choice. States and Territories are charged with oversight and regulation.

The variations across State lines of Working With Children checks have been much discussed this week, with the country’s attorneys-general to consider making this standardised and nationalised — although there’s an acknowledgement this is not a panacea.

The fragmented system also means Victoria can forge ahead with establishing a register of childcare workers (with a national register being looked at), and make banning mobile phones in the State’s centres mandatory.

But as Mr Clare explained on Thursday, the Commonwealth wields significant power.

“The big weapon that the Federal government has to wield here is the funding that we provide to childcare centres,” he said.

“The fact is that about 70 per cent of the funding that runs the centre comes from Australian taxpayers, comes from the Commonwealth Government through the child care subsidy. It’s what makes these centres work. And if they’re not working in the interest of our kids, then we’ve got to have the power to be able to cut that funding off.”

Australia’s childcare system currently receives about $14 billion a year in subsidies, which will continue to rise as the Labor Government looks to make universal early education a reality.

Uniquely to the country’s education system, the demand is public, where parents receive subsidies to spend at their childcare centre “of choice”, while the supply is private and providers compete against each other for customers.

But within the childcare sector, there is essentially a two-tier system. On the one hand, there are the not-for-profit centres or small, family-run profitable services.

The second tier are those run by large for-profits. Of the 25 large long-daycare providers in Australia, 21 are run for profit. Between 2013 and 2023, the number of for-profit long daycare services jumped by 60 per cent, while not-for-profits grew four per cent.

One of the largest companies is G8 Education. The conglomerate has 400 centres across the country via a raft of childcare brands, including Creative Gardens — whose Point Cook centre Brown is alleged to have offended at. Publicly listed on the ASX, G8 made a net profit after tax in 2024 of $67.7 million.

Affinity Education Group has more than 250 centres across brands including Aussie Kindies, Milestones, and Papilio Early Learning — all of which employed Brown at some stage during his eight years as an educator. It was acquired by Quadrant private equity in 2021 for $601m, and there are estimates it could now be worth more than $1b.

Only About Children, whose Williamstown location Brown worked at for five months, is owned by US childcare company Bright Horizons, who posted a US $140m net income in 2024.

Advocates have long queried why taxpayer dollars have gone to such centres.

Georgie Dent, chief executive of The Parenthood, has called for the sector to be funded directly.

“So more akin to how we fund schools. No parent is subsidised to send their child to the local primary school, schools are funded directly, and as part of that funding there are very clear expectations and regulations and accountability and transparency around that public funds,” she said on Wednesday.

“We believe that we need to be moving to that in the early childhood education and care space, because we have got a subsidy system that has enabled situations where safety and the wellbeing of children is compromised to occur.”

The Parenthood, fellow advocacy organisation The Front Project, and The Greens also want a national early childcare commission to be established.

Greens early education spokeswoman Steph Hodgins-May says the safety measures announced by State and Federal governments this week are band-aid fixes and only a national independent watchdog with teeth will keep children safe.

The watchdog the Greens first proposed in April was based on a key recommendation of the 2024 Productivity Commission inquiry. They say the body would enforce quality standards, act swiftly on safety breaches, and drive a shift towards “universal, high-quality care”.

The Parenthood says such a commission would be a mechanism “by which we can settle with total clarity the exact roles and responsibilities when it comes to how we deliver and fund early childhood education and care, between the various regulators”.

The Front Project have pointed to calls by former Prime Minister and SA Royal Commissioner Julia Gillard, the Productivity Commission and many others, and said “ we need to settle the question of accountability for the system”.

“This could happen through a national partnership agreement, a new way of education ministers working together, a national commission for early learning. What matters is that there is commitment between parties about who is responsible for what and that they hold each other to account,” chief executive Caroline Croser-Barlow said.

“Without resolution of these matters, we will continue to see lower quality services and harm to children.”

Making the complex system more seamless will not be easy, but it’s an idea favoured over that put forward by the Independent Collective of Survivors this week, who have called for men to be banned from working in childcare centres.

Mr Clare said that wasn’t the solution, and pointed to revelations made in the ABC reporting earlier this year where female employees allegedly committed physical and other abuses against children.

It’s clear that when it comes to keeping children safe, tinkering around the edges of a system which is designed to help families but is instead failing them, will not cut it.

But the unfortunate reality is that no matter how widely you reform the sector — as the shocking allegations must prompt — there is no “silver bullet” and there is no way to keep every child 100 per cent safe.

“There will always be bad people that will try and break through the net,” Mr Clare conceded on Thursday.

“But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have to take action and that we don’t have to take action faster, because we do,” he said.