‘Angry': Minister's link to childcare charges
'I know that they're angry because one of those parents is a friend of mine and her two little girls are directly affected by this,' Mr Clare said on Wednesday.
'And I won't tell you what she told me last night because you can't repeat it on television, but she's right to be mad.
'I'm mad. I think anyone who works in the early education system, and there's hundreds of thousands of fantastic people who do, would be angry today as well.
'And my friend is mad because of all of the stress and the trauma and the crap that she and her girls are going to have to go through in the weeks ahead.'
Yesterday, Victorian Police revealed they had charged the 26-year-old childcare worker Joshua Brown with 70 charges after he allegedly abused eight children at a Point Cook childcare centre in Melbourne.
Police allege the children were aged between five months and two years.
A widespread investigation has now been launched, with Victoria's chief health officer saying 1200 children have been recommended to undergo infectious diseases testing.
Mr Clare said the problem of predators in childcare settings was 'serious' and required 'serious action'.
'It's one of the reasons why I put this on the top of the agenda when education ministers met last week,' he said.
'Let me be clear – when education ministers met to discuss child safety last week, we didn't discuss this case, but we discussed – what are the next steps that we need to take as a nation to make sure that our kids are safe in early education and care?'
The government has already banned personal mobile phones in centres and changed rules around mandatory reporting from seven days to 24 hours following complaints about sexual or physical abuse.
Mr Clare promised further reforms, including cutting off funding for centres that fail to meet minimum standards.
He also flagged changes to background checks for workers.
'It's taken too long to do the work necessary to make sure that our Working with Children Check system is up to scratch,' he said.
'I've spoken a number of times with the Attorney-General, Michelle Rowland, the new Attorney-General, and I think I can safely speak on her behalf – she agrees, and is determined to take the action necessary here to make sure that our Working with Children Checks across the nation are up to scratch. 'That'll be something that will be discussed by attorneys-general when they meet next month.'
He cautioned that a working with children check was not a 'silver bullet'.
'In too many examples, a perpetrator is eventually caught and arrested and sentenced, there's somebody that got a Working with Children Check because they had no prior criminal record,' he said.
'And so it's only one of the things that we need to focus on here if we're serious about making sure that we keep our kids safe.'
More to come.
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