Goodstart educators claim they were 'silenced' by childcare giant over abuse case

Australia Broadcast Center

15 hours ago

Former Goodstart Early Learning educators claim the childcare giant told them not to talk to parents or colleagues about investigations into a staff member accused of sexually abusing children.
An ABC investigation has revealed a male educator at a Ballarat-region Goodstart centre was barred from early childhood work after allegedly sexually abusing two children and "potentially grooming" a child in out-of-home care living with him.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, worked at five Goodstart centres in the regional Victorian city of Ballarat between December 2020 and August 2024.
Victoria Police investigated the Goodstart centre allegations but concluded there was insufficient evidence to press charges.
It comes amid revelations other senior staff at Goodstart had been alerted to the man's alleged behaviour on at least one occasion where no official complaint was made.
Former childcare staff at the centre have also spoken to the ABC and accused Goodstart of trying to stop staff discussing the man's alleged offending.
"I think Goodstart were more worried about protecting the centre than actually worried about the safety of the children," said one former educator known only as Alex.
The ABC can also reveal the man worked for another childcare operator in the Ballarat region in 2018.
"The person was never unaccompanied in the presence of children. There were no concerns raised about the person's interactions with children," a spokesperson for that centre said.
According to the Services Victoria online portal, the man still holds a current Working with Children Check.
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Goodstart Early Learning said it had fired a Ballarat-region centre director in April 2025 for serious misconduct after an extensive search of emails and computer files.
"Goodstart now knows that a centre director repeatedly failed in their obligations to report allegations made to them about this person. We terminated their employment for that failure," said Goodstart CEO Dr Ros Baxter.
However, the ABC can reveal that at least one other senior manager, who is still employed at Goodstart, had been informed about an incident of inappropriate behaviour from the man in 2023.
Goodstart said that senior manager was led to believe the subsequently-sacked centre director had made the required reports.
The revelation comes as former staff at the centre allege Goodstart told educators not to talk to parents or each other about the allegations.
Former educator Alex said once Goodstart learned of allegations that the man had sexually abused two children, management directed staff not to talk to parents about the allegations.
"Staff had been advised that they could call the police if they didn't want to talk to the family," Alex said.
"They [Goodstart] just didn't want to deal with it, they just want to try and keep it quiet."
Alex said staff had complained the man had allegedly kissed children on the lips and engaged in other inappropriate behaviour, and that the man had been told to tone down his behaviour by management.
Goodstart maintains its instructions to staff would only be to assist, and not impede, a police investigation.
"We have consistently asked police when we can talk to … families and commence our own investigation," the company said in a statement.
"It is standard practice for police to instruct Goodstart to share no information and to put on hold our investigations while they conduct their inquiries.
"As a result we instruct our team to direct all queries direct to police."
Another former educator described a culture of secrecy around the complaints.
"We were basically silenced," said Rebecca, not her real name.
"We weren't allowed to talk to parents [about complaints], we weren't allowed to talk to each other."
Rebecca said she was disgusted with the response from Goodstart.
"I just want Goodstart to take some accountability, it happened in their centre, with their educators that they had employed, so they have some responsibility for that," she said.
"To turn around and blame someone else, its just a protection measure.
"They don't want anything to do with it."
Rebecca said she was one of a number of educators that had raised concerns about the man's behaviour, including his alleged fixation on a particular child.
"Us educators would see him staring at her, or constantly asking where she was," she said.
She said the child was scared of him and would allegedly start shaking if he came near her.
"It appeared that he was watching this child," she said.
Fellow former worker Alex said the man exhibited "very off behaviours" in the final year of his employment.
"He'd picked them [children] up a lot more, he'd sit them on his lap a lot more, you know, he'd tickle them," Alex said.
"He had been told to tone it down," Alex said.
"But he continued on."
Former staff said that lying down with children, kissing them on the lips and being overly affectionate is considered inappropriate behaviour from educators.
Under Victorian law, childcare centres must report all allegations of misconduct against a child to the Victorian Children's Commissioner within three days.
That includes allegations of sexual misconduct or abuse, physical violence and neglect of a child.
Failing to report allegations is a criminal offence.
Goodstart Early Learning, which has more than 650 not-for-profit childcare centres around Australia, emailed parents after receiving ABC media inquiries, telling them an independent investigator would now probe the allegations.
Goodstart's Ros Baxter said the organisation "absolutely" did not fail to investigate 12 complaints about the male worker, and blamed a former centre director.
"I believe what we saw here is someone who potentially just believed that she knew this person [the male worker] could not be a problem," Dr Baxter said.
Victorian government minister Colin Brooks said he was unable to comment on individual cases but the scope of the alleged situation was "completely unacceptable".
"We acknowledge the system has not worked the way it should," he said.
"We accept responsibility to fix that."
The Victorian government is scheduled to hold a special cabinet meeting today to discuss its response to the rapid review into childcare ordered in the wake of the Joshua Dale Brown allegations.
"We are all sickened by what's happened. These things shouldn't happen," Mr Brooks said.