Wednesday, 13 August 2025

Early childhood education and care

Nicole WERNER (Warrandyte) (17:29): I rise to grieve for the children of Victoria because the Labor government has failed to keep them safe in child care. An investigation by the ABC revealed today that a Victorian childcare worker who was sacked five years ago for alleged sexual misconduct and allegedly kissing and grooming toddlers and was later banned from the industry still holds his working with children check to this day.

In 2020 Goodstart Early Learning sacked a male educator after an internal investigation found he was grooming and kissing toddlers. Goodstart’s internal investigation substantiated allegations that he only changed the nappies of little girls and referred to certain children as his girls. It found that he bought gifts for certain children and asked parents to send photos of their children to his work email. He was alleged to have contacted parents to arrange unsanctioned catch-ups, and he even offered private babysitting services to these parents. The internal investigation concluded that the worker’s overall credibility and honesty was close to zero, that he presented an unacceptable risk to children and that he should cease employment with Goodstart. And they fired the man.

This man’s working with children check was referred for review, but despite these findings, his working with children check was not revoked. His former employer who made the report was never notified of the review’s outcome. This man continued working in other childcare centres after being sacked and then had another complaint against him. In 2024 a prohibition order was issued banning him from working in the childcare industry, yet his working with children check remained active. And we found out today from the government that it is still valid, it is still active. This man, who groomed and kissed toddlers, asked for photos of kids from their parents, offered private babysitting services to parents and has allegedly committed sexual misconduct, is permitted for all intents and purposes under this government to still be able to work with and have access to children. This is a failure beyond words. This scandal reveals what we are seeing time and time again: that Victoria’s working with children laws and systems under this government are failing children. That is why we grieve for the children of Victoria, because the Labor government has failed to keep them safe.

Time and again the Premier points to her review like it is this silver bullet that is going to solve everything. Any time there is a question asked – ‘Look at the review.’ Any time someone says she knew about it, there were warnings, there were things that were put to her regulator – ‘There’s a review coming. There’s a review coming. There’s a review coming.’ Well, I put to Victorians that there already have been recommendations that the Allan Labor government should have acted upon. The Ombudsman warned the government in 2022 that Victoria’s working with children screening process was one of the worst and weakest in the nation. Again in 2022 the commissioner for children and young people warned the government that without more funding for the agency investigating inappropriate behaviour in childcare, otherwise known as the reportable conduct scheme – and I quote from the report – ‘children will be abused, or continue to be abused’. I will say that again: the commissioner warned in 2022, three years ago, that ‘children will be abused, or continue to be abused’ by people who should have been stopped from working with children.

Both the Ombudsman and the commissioner for young people and children handed down these recommendations to close the loopholes, to fix the funding and to address these issues, yet three years later not one – not one! – of these recommendations has been acted on. My question is this: why do we need another review when we already have recommendations, when we have a litany of recommendations from the Ombudsman and a litany of recommendations from the commissioner for young people and children, who has warned the government for three years that children are not safe in our childcare centres? I ask the question: why is a review necessary when we have recommendations, when we should have acted, when we should have done something already? This is bureaucracy at its finest. Only the Allan Labor government could dream this up, to add another layer of bureaucracy whilst Victorian children are left unprotected in child care.

As soon as the details of the alleged paedophile Joshua Brown came to light, the coalition, we on this side of the house, offered to act constructively with the government to recall Parliament, to act together to urgently pass these recommendations and urgently act upon these things that had already been put to the government. Yet the government refused. Worst of all is that the person that is leading the review is former Labor Premier Jay Weatherill, who oversaw the worst child protection failure in his state’s history, in South Australia. This is who our Premier handpicked to lead Victoria’s review into the childcare crisis. We joke about the fact that Labor has jobs for mates, but this is no joke. This is again, as I said, bureaucracy at its finest, to have this sham review, but then not only to have a sham review but to have it led by the very Premier who was forced to apologise and who faced calls to resign after a damning Child Protection Systems Royal Commission in South Australia. This is Jay Weatherill. This is the person that the Premier arranged. A Labor Premier arranged for another former Labor Premier – talk about jobs for mates – to oversee this childcare inquiry, which is not even necessary because we have recommendations. He oversaw and was in charge during South Australia’s biggest child protection scandal in history. As Premier, his government ignored warnings that led to a crisis where he faced calls to resign and was forced to apologise following a damning royal commission into this child protection system in disarray in South Australia. This is who the Premier chose to lead this review.

So here we are. It is a sham review. Instead of adopting recommendations we already have, they decided to do a review into a review that does not even capture the regulator whose job it is to look after the childcare system. Then we have it led by a former Labor Premier who oversaw the worst child protection crisis in history in South Australia. Then when the coalition introduced a bill to simply enact the recommendations that have already been made to Parliament, the Allan Labor government voted against it. We grieve. We grieve for the children of Victoria because the Labor government has failed to keep them safe in child care.

Under current laws, working with children checks are suspended if someone is charged with child sex offences but not while they are under investigation. Imagine being a mum of a five-month-old. We have been there. The member for Kew has been there. The member for Euroa has been there. My baby is now seven months. I have been there. Many of us in this place have been there. Imagine taking yourself back to that time when your baby was without agency, was without a voice and was maybe only just learning to roll. You have not even started solids yet. Imagine being at that place. You are a mum of a five-month-old or a dad of a five-month-old, and you have put your new baby in child care because you are just trying to make ends meet. Then you watch the news to hear that there has been an alleged paedophile that has been sexually abusing babies five months old to three years old. Imagine hearing that. I remember being in my home when that news broke and reading that in utter shock and dismay, because my baby was five months old at that time, and not even being able to fathom that atrocity against a child. Then you watch on and find out they do not know all the centres, so you are scrambling to find out. Was it at your centre? Was my child one of the victims? They are five months old. They cannot speak. They cannot tell me. I do not know. Imagine the panic and fear that would course through your system as a parent. Then imagine going to the doctor and having to test your baby ‍– your five-month-old – for an STI, a sexually transmitted infection.

That is the story of 2000 families in Victoria. That is the story that we are here to tell today because of the government’s inaction and because of the alleged paedophile Joshua Brown, this alleged paedophile with 70 offences of child sexual abuse who had two substantiated misconduct reports, including aggressively handling children in 2023 and again in January 2024, yet kept his valid working with children check and worked at 10 more centres across Victoria. His misconduct was reported to the police. It was reported to the regulator. Yet he still held a valid working with children check and was still permitted to work in childcare centres because of the loopholes in Victoria’s system that the government had been warned about.

A friend of mine is from one of the families affected. Her niece had to be tested for an STI. Her niece, a new baby, had to be tested for a sexually transmitted infection. She is a new mum herself and was just about to re-enter the workforce with her baby at nine months of age, but she has since quit her job and given up her career as a teacher in my electorate. She said to me, ‘Nicole, I would rather our family be poor than my baby be unsafe.’ These are the responses from people in our community who have watched on as the government has failed them, so we grieve today for these Victorian families.

Imagine being a mum in Horsham who finds out that there has been a man playing with your kids in their childcare centre – there have been photos in the media of this – who was arrested four years ago by police for accessing child abuse material. He is there in your baby’s childcare centre because his working with children check was never revoked, never reviewed. Despite accessing child pornography, he has continued to work with and interact with children for four more years. He has had access to play with children and teach children for another four years under this government’s watch. This man, Ron Marks, has been charged with child sex offences.

The government was told by the Ombudsman and by the commissioner for children and young people that offenders would slip through the cracks. They were told that kids would be kept at risk. They were told that working with children checks needed to be reviewed without having to wait for conviction. They were told this and yet they did not act. That is why on this side of the house we move to close these loopholes. That is why the coalition has introduced proposed laws into Parliament to act on the recommendations from 2022. That is why on this side of the house we have three young mums in their 30s speaking here today, grieving for Victorian families, grieving for the 2000 families that had to test their babies for STIs and grieving for Victorian families like their own because Labor has failed to keep their children safe in child care.

We are here voicing the concerns of every young parent that has reached out to our offices to say, ‘Why didn’t they act? If they knew, why didn’t they act? If they knew, why didn’t they change things three years ago?’ They have asked us why, when the coalition constructively offered to work with the government, when the coalition introduced a bill to Parliament to say adopt the recommendations that have already been passed to Parliament, when we sought to close the loopholes that are keeping paedophiles in childcare centres – because there are people in there who have not yet been convicted but are being investigated. When we sought to close that loophole, the Allan Labor government voted against it. They would not debate it. They would not even talk to us about it. That is why we implored the government to recall Parliament. That is why we offered to work together. That is why we introduced legislation. We grieve for the children of Victoria because the Allan Labor government has failed to keep children safe in child care.