'Shameful': national work-with-kids system long overdue
State and federal ministers have been scrambling to fast-track reforms to Australia's childcare sector after it was revealed on Tuesday a Melbourne carer was charged with more than 70 sex offences.
Joshua Dale Brown allegedly abused eight children aged under two at a Point Cook facility in the city's southwest from April 2022 to January 2023.
The 26-year-old, who had a valid working with children clearance, was not known to police or subject to any complaints before his arrest in May.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse called on the federal government in 2015 to "facilitate a national model" for working with children checks.
Robert Fitzgerald, one of five members of the royal commission, said the recommendation remained unfulfilled.
"My view is that is shameful," the now-age discrimination commissioner told AAP.
"Ten years on, that job should have been completed and the fact that it isn't means there are gaps in our child safeguarding regime."
Every state and territory maintains separate working with children schemes with different rules and requirements.
Victoria, Queensland and NSW have all committed to reviewing or tightening up their regimes.
Uniform schemes would not completely negate the risk of child sexual abuse but would be an important first step, Mr Fitzgerald argued.
A 2022 Victorian ombudsman report exposed "serious flaws" in the state's scheme after former Melbourne City Mission worker Alexander Jones was convicted of sexually assaulting a child in 2018.
Jones was investigated for multiple alleged sexual offences in NSW but granted a permit in Victoria because his national police check was clean, as he had not been charged.
It remains the case that people under investigation for serious offences can hold a working with children check in Victoria.
Only criminal charges or a regulatory finding can lead to it being revoked.
Strengthening working with children checks will also be discussed at a meeting of state and federal attorneys-general in August.
Victoria's Minister for Children Lizzie Blandthorn said national reform work was "frustratingly slow".
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare described the system as complicated but conceded the reforms have taken "too bloody long".
Fellow senior frontbencher Clare O'Neil said she didn't have a good answer for why the royal commission's recommendations had been left on the shelf.
"A lot of these predators would pass a working with children check," she said.
The crisis has also cast a spotlight on educator-to-child ratios across the country.
The ratios do not require more than one carer to be around a child or group at any given time, unlike the Netherlands' "four eyes" principle.
A father whose two children attended the Point Cook childcare centre wants CCTV installed throughout the facility and questioned the lack of staff supervision.
"There should also be two people there at all times," said Satbir, who didn't want his surname included.
NSW has flagged a trial of CCTV cameras in centres, while an urgent Victorian review is looking at making the technology mandatory.
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9 News
an hour ago
- 9 News
'My heart sank': Father learns of son's crossover with alleged childcare paedophile Joshua Brown
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here Exclusive: A Melbourne father has spoken out learning his toddler may have attended a childcare centre where alleged paedophile Joshua Brown worked, as the former childcare worker's employment history is revisited. A major police investigation saw Joshua Brown charged with 70 offences, including sexual assault, earlier this year. The charges relate to eight alleged victims at a Point Cook early education centre. Joshua Brown, 26, was arrested on May 12. (Supplied) About 1200 families were also contacted to send their children for precautionary testing for sexually transmitted diseases. Revelations emerged yesterday that Brown may have worked on more occasions than those listed on the government website. Melbourne father Daniel* did not initially think his family had been impacted, until an updated timeline revealed a crossover between his two-year-old son's attendance and Brown's employment at a centre in the city's west. "We didn't expect it, for us to be involved in it, and when we did find out my heart sank," Daniel said. "These are dates that the government weren't aware of, and yeah, it's just unfortunate that we had to find out that way," he told 9News. Premier Jacinta Allan said the website was being "constantly updated". (Nine) Because they were not initially contacted by the health department, Daniel claims his son was turned away from the test site and had to scramble to prove his toddler needed the test. "To make such big mistakes in this, with young children involved between, you know, five months to two years and, you know, to be cutting corners and, .... the communication breakdown has been very disappointing," Daniel told 9News. Police are investigating if any alleged abuse occurred at the 19 other facilities he worked at. Allan has assured parents the government is taking immediate action, yesterday appointing Jay Weatherill to review Victoria's childcare sector. "Jay Weatherill is the best person for this work, he is the best person to lead this work," she said. But critics have argued the former South Australian premier, who oversaw the worst child protection failure in the state's history, is not the right fit. "How on earth can we have confidence that this review will deliver the outcomes that Victorian families need?" shadow education minister Jess Wilson asked. *Name has been changed for privacy Melbourne national Australia Victoria child sex abuse CONTACT US Property News: The suburbs where workers on $300,000 can't afford a house.
The Advertiser
3 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Qantas's two-day hack delay fuels customer scam fears
Millions of customers could already have been targeted by scammers in the two days it took Qantas to share details of a major cyber attack, an expert has warned. And there might be further attempts by malicious actors to hit Australia's biggest airline now that a vulnerability has been exposed. The airline announced on Wednesday that a third-party system used by an offshore call centre had been attacked two days earlier. The hack potentially compromised the names, dates of birth, email addresses and frequent flyer numbers of six million customers, although their financial information remained secure, Qantas said. But a cybersecurity expert said the 48-hour delay in telling customers there had been an attack might have left millions vulnerable to scam attempts. "That second round can be a lot more powerful than the first breach and then there is the risk of customers not knowing to be alert to any emails or phone calls from Qantas as suspicious," La Trobe University's Daswin De Silva told AAP. "These emails can be sent very quickly ... phishing or other impersonation attacks could have happened in those 48 hours." Qantas representatives should come forward and explain why there was a 48-hour delay in notifying customers of the scam risk, Professor De Silva added. He speculated the delay was likely due to Qantas figuring out whether other systems had been compromised and deploying security measures to dispel the cyber criminals. Qantas confirmed that scammers were already impersonating the airline in the wake of the attack and told customers to be vigilant. The airline has been contacted for comment about the notification delay. The company on Friday provided an update confirming that credit card details, personal financial information, passport details and Qantas Frequent Flyer accounts were not exposed. However, customers will have to wait several days longer for an individual update on which personal details were compromised due to the hack. "I want to apologise again for the uncertainty this has caused," chief executive Vanessa Hudson said. "We're committed to keeping our affected customers informed with regular updates as our investigation progresses." Qantas, which has been working with government authorities to investigate the incident, said there has been no further threat to its systems and additional security measures have been put in place. Australian Federal Police confirmed they were investigating and the airline had been "highly engaged" with authorities. Qantas has remained tight-lipped about who it believes is behind the attack and no cyber criminal groups have taken responsibility. But Prof De Silva said this could be an ominous sign of more cyber strikes to come for the airline now that criminals have found a vulnerability. "Once you figure out a weak spot, they try to exploit it to the maximum," he said. Multiple cyber experts believe the group responsible is called Scattered Spider, a cabal of young cyber criminals living in the US and the UK. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation recently warned that the group was targeting the airline sector by impersonating legitimate users to bypass multi-factor authentication and access systems. Prof De Silva said Scattered Spider was a financially motivated group that did not obtain credit card details or other "valuable" information in the attack. "They might be planning further attacks that gets them to their objective because obviously they want to see their effort fulfilled," he said. Qantas has added security measures for its frequent flyer accounts, including requiring extra identification for any changes. Since the attack was revealed, Qantas has received more than 5000 customer inquiries. Legal experts suggest the incident could lead to a class action against Qantas after compensation claims were made against Optus and Medibank following major breaches in 2022. Millions of customers could already have been targeted by scammers in the two days it took Qantas to share details of a major cyber attack, an expert has warned. And there might be further attempts by malicious actors to hit Australia's biggest airline now that a vulnerability has been exposed. The airline announced on Wednesday that a third-party system used by an offshore call centre had been attacked two days earlier. The hack potentially compromised the names, dates of birth, email addresses and frequent flyer numbers of six million customers, although their financial information remained secure, Qantas said. But a cybersecurity expert said the 48-hour delay in telling customers there had been an attack might have left millions vulnerable to scam attempts. "That second round can be a lot more powerful than the first breach and then there is the risk of customers not knowing to be alert to any emails or phone calls from Qantas as suspicious," La Trobe University's Daswin De Silva told AAP. "These emails can be sent very quickly ... phishing or other impersonation attacks could have happened in those 48 hours." Qantas representatives should come forward and explain why there was a 48-hour delay in notifying customers of the scam risk, Professor De Silva added. He speculated the delay was likely due to Qantas figuring out whether other systems had been compromised and deploying security measures to dispel the cyber criminals. Qantas confirmed that scammers were already impersonating the airline in the wake of the attack and told customers to be vigilant. The airline has been contacted for comment about the notification delay. The company on Friday provided an update confirming that credit card details, personal financial information, passport details and Qantas Frequent Flyer accounts were not exposed. However, customers will have to wait several days longer for an individual update on which personal details were compromised due to the hack. "I want to apologise again for the uncertainty this has caused," chief executive Vanessa Hudson said. "We're committed to keeping our affected customers informed with regular updates as our investigation progresses." Qantas, which has been working with government authorities to investigate the incident, said there has been no further threat to its systems and additional security measures have been put in place. Australian Federal Police confirmed they were investigating and the airline had been "highly engaged" with authorities. Qantas has remained tight-lipped about who it believes is behind the attack and no cyber criminal groups have taken responsibility. But Prof De Silva said this could be an ominous sign of more cyber strikes to come for the airline now that criminals have found a vulnerability. "Once you figure out a weak spot, they try to exploit it to the maximum," he said. Multiple cyber experts believe the group responsible is called Scattered Spider, a cabal of young cyber criminals living in the US and the UK. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation recently warned that the group was targeting the airline sector by impersonating legitimate users to bypass multi-factor authentication and access systems. Prof De Silva said Scattered Spider was a financially motivated group that did not obtain credit card details or other "valuable" information in the attack. "They might be planning further attacks that gets them to their objective because obviously they want to see their effort fulfilled," he said. Qantas has added security measures for its frequent flyer accounts, including requiring extra identification for any changes. Since the attack was revealed, Qantas has received more than 5000 customer inquiries. Legal experts suggest the incident could lead to a class action against Qantas after compensation claims were made against Optus and Medibank following major breaches in 2022. Millions of customers could already have been targeted by scammers in the two days it took Qantas to share details of a major cyber attack, an expert has warned. And there might be further attempts by malicious actors to hit Australia's biggest airline now that a vulnerability has been exposed. The airline announced on Wednesday that a third-party system used by an offshore call centre had been attacked two days earlier. The hack potentially compromised the names, dates of birth, email addresses and frequent flyer numbers of six million customers, although their financial information remained secure, Qantas said. But a cybersecurity expert said the 48-hour delay in telling customers there had been an attack might have left millions vulnerable to scam attempts. "That second round can be a lot more powerful than the first breach and then there is the risk of customers not knowing to be alert to any emails or phone calls from Qantas as suspicious," La Trobe University's Daswin De Silva told AAP. "These emails can be sent very quickly ... phishing or other impersonation attacks could have happened in those 48 hours." Qantas representatives should come forward and explain why there was a 48-hour delay in notifying customers of the scam risk, Professor De Silva added. He speculated the delay was likely due to Qantas figuring out whether other systems had been compromised and deploying security measures to dispel the cyber criminals. Qantas confirmed that scammers were already impersonating the airline in the wake of the attack and told customers to be vigilant. The airline has been contacted for comment about the notification delay. The company on Friday provided an update confirming that credit card details, personal financial information, passport details and Qantas Frequent Flyer accounts were not exposed. However, customers will have to wait several days longer for an individual update on which personal details were compromised due to the hack. "I want to apologise again for the uncertainty this has caused," chief executive Vanessa Hudson said. "We're committed to keeping our affected customers informed with regular updates as our investigation progresses." Qantas, which has been working with government authorities to investigate the incident, said there has been no further threat to its systems and additional security measures have been put in place. Australian Federal Police confirmed they were investigating and the airline had been "highly engaged" with authorities. Qantas has remained tight-lipped about who it believes is behind the attack and no cyber criminal groups have taken responsibility. But Prof De Silva said this could be an ominous sign of more cyber strikes to come for the airline now that criminals have found a vulnerability. "Once you figure out a weak spot, they try to exploit it to the maximum," he said. Multiple cyber experts believe the group responsible is called Scattered Spider, a cabal of young cyber criminals living in the US and the UK. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation recently warned that the group was targeting the airline sector by impersonating legitimate users to bypass multi-factor authentication and access systems. Prof De Silva said Scattered Spider was a financially motivated group that did not obtain credit card details or other "valuable" information in the attack. "They might be planning further attacks that gets them to their objective because obviously they want to see their effort fulfilled," he said. Qantas has added security measures for its frequent flyer accounts, including requiring extra identification for any changes. Since the attack was revealed, Qantas has received more than 5000 customer inquiries. Legal experts suggest the incident could lead to a class action against Qantas after compensation claims were made against Optus and Medibank following major breaches in 2022. Millions of customers could already have been targeted by scammers in the two days it took Qantas to share details of a major cyber attack, an expert has warned. And there might be further attempts by malicious actors to hit Australia's biggest airline now that a vulnerability has been exposed. The airline announced on Wednesday that a third-party system used by an offshore call centre had been attacked two days earlier. The hack potentially compromised the names, dates of birth, email addresses and frequent flyer numbers of six million customers, although their financial information remained secure, Qantas said. But a cybersecurity expert said the 48-hour delay in telling customers there had been an attack might have left millions vulnerable to scam attempts. "That second round can be a lot more powerful than the first breach and then there is the risk of customers not knowing to be alert to any emails or phone calls from Qantas as suspicious," La Trobe University's Daswin De Silva told AAP. "These emails can be sent very quickly ... phishing or other impersonation attacks could have happened in those 48 hours." Qantas representatives should come forward and explain why there was a 48-hour delay in notifying customers of the scam risk, Professor De Silva added. He speculated the delay was likely due to Qantas figuring out whether other systems had been compromised and deploying security measures to dispel the cyber criminals. Qantas confirmed that scammers were already impersonating the airline in the wake of the attack and told customers to be vigilant. The airline has been contacted for comment about the notification delay. The company on Friday provided an update confirming that credit card details, personal financial information, passport details and Qantas Frequent Flyer accounts were not exposed. However, customers will have to wait several days longer for an individual update on which personal details were compromised due to the hack. "I want to apologise again for the uncertainty this has caused," chief executive Vanessa Hudson said. "We're committed to keeping our affected customers informed with regular updates as our investigation progresses." Qantas, which has been working with government authorities to investigate the incident, said there has been no further threat to its systems and additional security measures have been put in place. Australian Federal Police confirmed they were investigating and the airline had been "highly engaged" with authorities. Qantas has remained tight-lipped about who it believes is behind the attack and no cyber criminal groups have taken responsibility. But Prof De Silva said this could be an ominous sign of more cyber strikes to come for the airline now that criminals have found a vulnerability. "Once you figure out a weak spot, they try to exploit it to the maximum," he said. Multiple cyber experts believe the group responsible is called Scattered Spider, a cabal of young cyber criminals living in the US and the UK. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation recently warned that the group was targeting the airline sector by impersonating legitimate users to bypass multi-factor authentication and access systems. Prof De Silva said Scattered Spider was a financially motivated group that did not obtain credit card details or other "valuable" information in the attack. "They might be planning further attacks that gets them to their objective because obviously they want to see their effort fulfilled," he said. Qantas has added security measures for its frequent flyer accounts, including requiring extra identification for any changes. Since the attack was revealed, Qantas has received more than 5000 customer inquiries. Legal experts suggest the incident could lead to a class action against Qantas after compensation claims were made against Optus and Medibank following major breaches in 2022.
ABC News
3 hours ago
- ABC News
In Australia's childcare centres profit comes before safety
It's the stuff of nightmares. Broken bones. Burnt hands. Children strapped into high chairs for hours and force fed until they vomit. Toddlers yanked, shaken, dragged along the ground. Kids found unsupervised in car parks or roaming next to busy main roads. Babies left in soiled nappies all day. Ignored, neglected, left to cry. And then there's the video — just nine seconds long. A defenceless baby, strapped into a bouncer, crying hysterically as a childcare worker slaps her across the face repeatedly for fun. Her colleague films it, laughing, and uploads it to Snapchat. It's hard to believe it's happening in Australia's childcare centres but it's been going on for years, all in plain sight. But there are even more heinous crimes. It took the announcement of a 26-year-old male educator charged with more than 70 counts of child sexual abuse at a Melbourne childcare centre, before people started asking the question: is childcare safe? For those like me who have been investigating childcare for almost a year now, the news was horrifying but not a surprise. In Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia, at least one report of sexual misconduct is made every day. And that's just what's tracked and reported. In Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory, there's no reportable conduct scheme, so we simply don't know. The Victorian man, Joshua Dale Brown, worked at 20 childcare centres, most of them owned by big private operators including private equity-owned Affinity Education, listed ASX giant G8 Education and United States owned Only About Children. Scratch the surface, and you find more. On July 9, a worker from Affinity childcare group is scheduled to face a NSW court charged with nine counts of sexually touching a child. In March, Quoc Phu Tong, who worked at a Seaforth centre run by Only About Children, was sentenced to two years in prison for the intentional touching of a child. Then there's Ashley Paul Griffith, a childcare worker sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to a series of offences at early learning centres, mostly in Queensland. His crimes, described as "depraved," included rape and the production of child exploitation material. Griffith's abuse went undetected for years, despite holding a valid Blue Card, due to systemic failures in the child protection systems. In March I launched a series of investigations into the $20 billion childcare sector, forensically exposing a system in deep crisis. What was revealed is how for-profit providers, now accounting for 75 per cent of the sector, have fundamentally reshaped the sector. According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, on average the big operators pay lower wages, hire more casual and part-time staff, and experience higher educator turnover, than their non profit counterparts. At the same time, they receive the lion's share of the $14 billion a year of taxpayer money spent on childcare subsidies. These are taxpayer dollars propping up a system where some operators spend as little as $1 a day per child on meals, and where educators are placed under KPIs to boost occupancy and cut costs. When you follow the money, the priorities are clear. Profit comes first. Such an obviously stark difference to how we treat primary and secondary education. Childcare is a vital service for families turned into a money-making machine. The childcare sector has exploded in scale but the laws and oversight meant to govern it have not kept pace, particularly with the rise of the big for-profit operators, with their deep pockets and lobbyists in tow. It is also a property play. Children aren't just enrolled, they come with a price tag. They can be worth as much as $350,000 to a centre when you take into account childcare property evaluations, which are calculated based on the number of children the centres are licensed to enrol. Some ads even say "no experience necessary" for owning a centre. The brutal reality is Australia's regulatory system is fragmented and reactive, with each state handling complaints differently and no consistent national oversight. In many cases, regulators are under-resourced and hesitant to use the enforcement powers they do have. Centres with repeated breaches remain open. Serious incidents, including abuse, neglect, and unsupervised children, are often dismissed as "one-offs". They're absolutely not. Affinity Education offers a window into how the regulatory system is failing families. Between 2021 and 2024, its NSW centres racked up more than 1,100 regulatory breaches, averaging more than one a day. Yet in that time, the regulator issued just nine infringement notices, totalling less than $2,000 in fines. In previous statements, Affinity has said it takes concerns from families seriously. Thousands of pages of internal regulatory documents reveal the same problems surfacing again and again: unsafe sleep practices, staff out of ratio, and incomplete records ranging from expired working with children checks to missing staff qualifications and children's medical histories. In most cases, they are told to do better by the regulator. Despite this, since December last year, Affinity was allowed to expand — acquiring 13 more centres in NSW. Then there's the National Quality Standards which are meant to give parents peace of mind, a ratings system or benchmark for safety, care, and education. But they too are broken. One in 10 centres have never been rated and the others are rated on average every four years, with some as many as nine years, according to ACECQA. The flaws in the system are there for all to see. A worker shortage due to burnout and low pay, education providers exploiting the situation by offering fast tracked courses and some selling fake qualifications, which all undermines the quality of care. We've seen review after review. NSW had one and released the findings last week. Now Victoria is scrambling to conduct another. What about the other states? Do we really have to wait for a scandal to break before each state starts paying attention? Education Minister Jason Clare admitted to Sarah Ferguson on 7.30 that governments and ministers haven't done enough. They have been too slow to act. He is right. He is finally taking action introducing legislation to cut funding to childcare centres that fail to meet safety standards and working with children checks. But there are other fixes he can make including the establishment of a national childcare commission, a key recommendation from the Productivity Commission in September 2024. Or an independent review into the National Quality Standards or the performance of its oversight body, ACECQA. None of this addresses the elephant in the room: the dominance of private operators and the inherent conflict of interest between profit and child welfare. Nor does it tackle the widespread fraud and compliance failures uncovered in the auditor-general's recent report into childcare subsidies, which estimated $2.6 billion has been sucked out in the past five years. But as many know it is the tip of the iceberg. The sector is riddled with complexity, failure and risk. While there are some good operators and good, passionate educators, it is getting tougher for families to find quality care. A royal commission or independent inquiry is the only way to truly expose how deep the problems go. The Greens have called for it, alongside educators, parents and some policy experts. But the major parties remain silent. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has dismissed the idea, saying a royal commission would "take too long" as the system spirals further into crisis. It's worth remembering the banking royal commission. The government of the day resisted it too, but in just a year it exposed systemic misconduct, helped restore public trust, and forced long-overdue reforms. Why do children deserve any less?
