Speaker 1: I'm Ruby Jones and you're listening to seven AM. When
Speaker 1: Joshua Brown was arrested for allegedly abusing children at childcare
Speaker 1: centers across Melbourne. It exposed a horrifying reality, patchwork regulation
Speaker 1: and an understaffed, profit driven industry failing children. Months on,
Speaker 1: as state and federal governments try to deal with the fallout,
Speaker 1: and as the Albanezy government pumps record investment into the
Speaker 1: early childhood sector, experts say children still are not safe
Speaker 1: in childcare. Today, Crime Reporter at the Age Sharon Grog
Speaker 1: on the tension between rapid business growth and child safety
Speaker 1: at the heart of the childcare sector. It's Tuesday, October
Speaker 1: twenty eight and just a warning, this episode discusses allegations
Speaker 1: of child sex abuse. So Sharon, I thought to begin with,
Speaker 1: we could go back to July when police first went
Speaker 1: public with their investigation. Tell me what we initially heard about,
Speaker 1: what was going on in childcare centers, and then what
Speaker 1: you did to try and uncover more.
Speaker 2: The first we heard about this was just before nine
Speaker 2: am on July first, As I remember, our editors were
Speaker 2: all about to walk into morning conference and the cops
Speaker 2: had called a press conference which happens all the time.
Speaker 3: The Premier was going to be.
Speaker 2: There, which wasn't necessarily unusual, but then I got sent
Speaker 2: the media release of what was coming, and I remember
Speaker 2: my stomach just dropped.
Speaker 4: Brown was not known to police prior to this investigation. However,
Speaker 4: as soon as we identified he's alleged defending he was
Speaker 4: removed from the community.
Speaker 3: He had a.
Speaker 4: Valiant working with children check, which has since been canceled.
Speaker 2: Basically, a twenty six year old childcare worker named Joshua
Speaker 2: Brown had been charged with sexually abusing at least eight
Speaker 2: babies and toddlers at a Point Cook childcare center, and
Speaker 2: he was under investigation for abusing more kids at another
Speaker 2: Essendence center. He'd worked at more than twenty centers across Victoria,
Speaker 2: so the investigation had been running in secret for weeks,
Speaker 2: but they were going public now because they had to
Speaker 2: launch this unprecedented testing program for the kids at those centers,
Speaker 2: testing for STI sexually transmitted diseases.
Speaker 5: As a precaution, we are recommending that some children undergo
Speaker 5: testing for infectious diseases due to a potential exposure risk
Speaker 5: in that period. We do understand that this is another
Speaker 5: distressing element to the situation, and we're taking this approach
Speaker 5: as a precaution.
Speaker 2: They hadn't wanted to start a panic before they told
Speaker 2: those families. But then we learned that they had to
Speaker 2: test more than a thousand kids because he'd contaminated food
Speaker 2: at the center with bodily fluids.
Speaker 4: Hundreds of additional children are being recommended for testing.
Speaker 6: That's right, Jen, eight hundred and thirty in fact, and
Speaker 6: that's on top of the existing twelve hundred children that
Speaker 6: have already been advised by the Department of Health to
Speaker 6: get tested for infectious diseases.
Speaker 2: We were looking basically at one of the worst pedophile
Speaker 2: cases I think we'd seen. So we hit the phones,
Speaker 2: basically calling anyone we thought might know about this, and
Speaker 2: we learned that the cops had raided Brown in May
Speaker 2: after finding a horde of child abuse material filmed at
Speaker 2: that childcare center.
Speaker 1: And as you say, Joshua Brown had worked at many
Speaker 1: childcare centers across Melbourne. There were so many families affected.
Speaker 1: So as you started looking into the centers, what came
Speaker 1: to light about Brown and his work history.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So once we started looking at Brown, it became
Speaker 2: clear he'd been in childcare for a really long time.
Speaker 3: Considering he was twenty six.
Speaker 2: He'd worked at two of the biggest chains in the country,
Speaker 2: Affinity in G eight, and that meant he'd been sent
Speaker 2: out to fill in its centers all around the state.
Speaker 2: Pretty soon, though, after going public with the list of
Speaker 2: where Brown had worked, the cops realized there was a problem.
Speaker 3: The dates weren't matching up. People were ringing in.
Speaker 2: Affinity and G eight both came out and said, whoops,
Speaker 2: you know, we got some of the dates wrong. Then
Speaker 2: they came out again, whoops, he wasn't ever at this center,
Speaker 2: or there was another one we missed, or in the
Speaker 2: case of the Essendon Center, we worked out he'd actually
Speaker 2: been there for six months, longer than what Affinity had
Speaker 2: told police. And that's the one where he's being investigated
Speaker 2: for further abuse.
Speaker 1: And you looked into that, this discrepancy between what the
Speaker 1: police were told and what actually happened at Essendon in particular.
Speaker 1: So tell me about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So some staff at Affinity came forward and leaked
Speaker 2: me some pretty extraordinary like basically a treasure trove of
Speaker 2: internal documents. And one of the alarming things I found
Speaker 2: once I started digging through was there was a post
Speaker 2: in Affinity's internal staff communication portal. It's kind of like
Speaker 2: their Facebook. And there's the CEO, T Hickey. He likes
Speaker 2: to post pictures from his visits to centers. He signs
Speaker 2: it off to Affinity and Beyond. And there he was
Speaker 2: visiting the Essendonce center, where Brown had worked right up
Speaker 2: until he was arrested, and where cops suspect he kept
Speaker 2: abusing kids just weeks before the raid on Brown. Hickey
Speaker 2: was there and he was praising how great the team
Speaker 2: was and how they'd recently come off a department watch list.
Speaker 3: That was the first anyone had heard of that, And.
Speaker 2: Still were yet to really get any answer on why
Speaker 2: that center was being looked at by the regulator and
Speaker 2: why it came off the least.
Speaker 3: That's just how opaque the system is. I got my.
Speaker 2: Hands on another really concerning thing too. There was a
Speaker 2: complaint made by a young childcare worker on placement at
Speaker 2: the Point Cook Center, where Brown is actually charged already
Speaker 2: with abusing babies and toddlers. They had said, look, we're
Speaker 2: so understaffed. Workers are constantly being left alone with the kids,
Speaker 2: and they thought rightly that was dangerous. So this complaint
Speaker 2: was made while Brown was working there at the same
Speaker 2: time he's accused of abusing kids there. In fact, most
Speaker 2: of his serious offending was actually after that complaint was made.
Speaker 3: This complaint had gone over G.
Speaker 2: Eight's head to the regulator, and it was the regulator
Speaker 2: who chose not to take it any further. They looked
Speaker 2: at it and said, that's all right. And honestly, it's
Speaker 2: one of the things I just can't stop thinking about.
Speaker 1: Can we talk more about the way that the oversight
Speaker 1: system works or doesn't work by the sounds of it.
Speaker 1: So when a center is flagged, what is then done
Speaker 1: to address that and to then make sure that it
Speaker 1: is meeting standards?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, they say they review things. And I
Speaker 2: wish I could lay this out for you in proper detail,
Speaker 2: but there are so many agencies involved in so much
Speaker 2: bureaucracy and secrecy, it is actually really difficult to get
Speaker 2: the full picture. I've learned so some parts of government
Speaker 2: don't even tell each other about child safety investigations. For example,
Speaker 2: it's an entirely different branch of government here in Victoria
Speaker 2: in charge of reviewing working with children's checks. Because at
Speaker 2: the time Brown is arrested, he's still got a valid
Speaker 2: children's check, even though we found out there were multiple
Speaker 2: complaints made against him, he lied repeatedly on his resume,
Speaker 2: he'd been fired more than three times, and he was
Speaker 2: still deemed a very fit person to be working with kids.
Speaker 2: One of the other key things at the heart of
Speaker 2: abuse cases is usually supervision, so childcare workers will tell
Speaker 2: you they're always understaffed at the really big for profit chains,
Speaker 2: so they're always trying to get heaps of kids in
Speaker 2: while kind of saving cash on staff. Basically is the
Speaker 2: business model, but there's this idea of the two eyes rules,
Speaker 2: so a kid shouldn't be left alone with one person.
Speaker 2: If we're thinking about safety, there should be two people
Speaker 2: in a room, never one, really though. The only legal
Speaker 2: requirement are staffing ratios, which different in every state, but
Speaker 2: usually it's about one educator to every four babies, and
Speaker 2: it changes based on the age. But centers will sometimes
Speaker 2: use an under the roof loophole, so they'll count off
Speaker 2: as staff who aren't watching kids in those ratios.
Speaker 3: Or they'll apply for exemptions.
Speaker 2: The big problem is that the regulator doesn't really come
Speaker 2: out to check, and when they do, sites are usually notified,
Speaker 2: so in the case of Affinity, for example, I could
Speaker 2: see them sending these staff wide memos thanking people for
Speaker 2: filling in for their absent colleagues while the regulator was
Speaker 2: on site. And even if they do get caught, more
Speaker 2: often than not, the regulator will suggest, you know what,
Speaker 2: you can just apply for a staffing exemption rather than
Speaker 2: slapping them with any real consequence.
Speaker 1: Coming up cash bonus incentives at the cost of child safety. Sharon,
Speaker 1: let's talk a bit more about Affinity, which is one
Speaker 1: of the chains where Joshua Brown worked. Tell me about
Speaker 1: how they operate, what we know about how they approach
Speaker 1: both child safety and as a profit company making money.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, Affinity are owned by a private equity group
Speaker 2: Quadrant and since that group of coming, they've been really
Speaker 2: aggressively buying up centers to expand their kind of revenue
Speaker 2: base and take advantage of the government's push to have
Speaker 2: more kids in childcare. And look, by comparison, Affinity spends
Speaker 2: less on staff than other childcare chains, but their enrollment
Speaker 2: push is really intense. So we found clear policies of
Speaker 2: them instructing staff to infiltrate Facebook mothers groups to promote
Speaker 2: their centers, and you know, like they'll get staff to
Speaker 2: run prize competitions for which parent can write them the
Speaker 2: best review. Also are confirmed that managers get big cash
Speaker 2: bonuses sometimes tens of thousands of dollars and shares in
Speaker 2: the company as incentives for growing those enrollments. So they're
Speaker 2: always running these internal campaigns. There's shout outs from the CEO,
Speaker 2: Tim Hickey, for his rising stars of enrollment or occupancy
Speaker 2: is what they call it, and they always list growing
Speaker 2: as their key priority rather than safety. In fact, one
Speaker 2: thing we were leaked was this crisis meeting for staff
Speaker 2: at Affinity. We actually got the full recording and it
Speaker 2: was days after Four Corners had broadcast are really damning
Speaker 2: expos into child safety breaches at Affinity centers in New
Speaker 2: South Wales. And even then you can see the senior
Speaker 2: execs saying, look, just stay focused on enrollments, just really
Speaker 2: you know, brushing aside those real safety concerns.
Speaker 3: That were aired.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned Tim Hickey, the CEO of Affinity Education Group,
Speaker 1: so he fronted the New South Wales parliamentary inquiry into
Speaker 1: the childcare sector recently. So tell me about what he said.
Speaker 7: Well, we've actually been investing a lot in compliance and
Speaker 7: safety and doing a lot of work on our systems
Speaker 7: and processes which are very robust, and we can take
Speaker 7: you through the detail of what we actually do.
Speaker 2: Hickey starts by saying he has the finger to the
Speaker 2: pulse at all his centers, doing weekly meetings with staff
Speaker 2: and regular visits, and then he can't answer any questions
Speaker 2: about what was going on during safety incidents. You know,
Speaker 2: apparently he didn't know that kind of day to day stuff.
Speaker 7: My priority and what I'm hired to do is to
Speaker 7: take care of Affinity centers and drive safety and quality,
Speaker 7: because if we don't drive safe, high quality centers, we're
Speaker 7: not going to have a sustainable business.
Speaker 2: He was forced to admit he'd gotten pretty big bonuses
Speaker 2: the same year as some of those safety scandals earlier
Speaker 2: at Affinity. But the thing that did surprise me is
Speaker 2: he really sort of doubled down and dismissed the idea
Speaker 2: of there being a staffing problem, even though it's come
Speaker 2: up again and again.
Speaker 7: Our centers or a meeting or exceeding the national quality standard,
Speaker 7: and the vast majority deliver excellent early education every day.
Speaker 2: And you know, in fairness to Affinity, there's a problem
Speaker 2: in the bigger sector with a shortage of people. The
Speaker 2: politicians grilling him brought it up a lot, and you know,
Speaker 2: they're legally required staffing ratios being consistently broken at his centers.
Speaker 1: And there was quite a fallout from his appearance at
Speaker 1: the parliamentary inquiry.
Speaker 3: Tell me about what happened after he gave evidence.
Speaker 2: After that appearance, we had some more angry staff get
Speaker 2: in touch and we found out that Affinity had ignored
Speaker 2: a complaint about child safety at one of its centers
Speaker 2: where Brown was being investigated, a complaint about a child
Speaker 2: inappropriately touching another child, and this had been made after
Speaker 2: Brown had actually.
Speaker 3: Been arrested at the Escidence center.
Speaker 2: Affinity didn't tell sex crime detectives who were then investigating Brown,
Speaker 2: so the board of Affinity hadn't known that Affinity had
Speaker 2: actually withheld so much information from police. I mean, it
Speaker 2: was not just that they got the work history wrong
Speaker 2: of Brown when they initially told police. It became apparent
Speaker 2: that both these big childcare chains gps track their staff
Speaker 2: to the minute and to the room location. It's usually
Speaker 2: to stop people taking breaks, and they hadn't passed that
Speaker 2: information to police for a very long time, and now
Speaker 2: here they were not passing on another safety complaint to
Speaker 2: the investigators. So suddenly we got word that Hickey and
Speaker 2: his chief operating officer, a guy who had told parents
Speaker 2: to stop being emotional over the Josh Brown case early on,
Speaker 2: they were both going effective immediately.
Speaker 1: Right, So some executives are gone, But the big question
Speaker 1: moving forward is how much has actually changed at these
Speaker 1: large chains since these allegations came to light.
Speaker 2: Well, look, there was a lot of real horror when
Speaker 2: the case broke, but so many of these problems have
Speaker 2: been known for such a long time, and there is
Speaker 2: a concern now that a lot of the solutions now
Speaker 2: are being reached for are these quick band aid style
Speaker 2: things like putting CCTV cameras and centers banning phones. There
Speaker 2: is finally now going to be a national register of
Speaker 2: childcare workers. Experts have been calling for that for years now,
Speaker 2: so workers won't be able to just shop around between
Speaker 2: states if they've lost their check somewhere else, and there
Speaker 2: will be tougher penalties for breaches too. In New South Wales,
Speaker 2: for example, the regulators talked about visiting centers once a
Speaker 2: year now, but obviously that's still a very low amount,
Speaker 2: so we need a regulator with teeth. The bigger issue
Speaker 2: of understaffing and that proper regulation. It's more expensive, it's
Speaker 2: harder to fix, but it's so important.
Speaker 1: And Affinity is just one company in this space. So
Speaker 1: and what does their story tell you about problems in
Speaker 1: the way that the industry operates at large?
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is definitely a symptom of the bigger industry.
Speaker 2: I mean a lot of the problems at Affinity are
Speaker 2: also problems at GSH And it really speaks to that
Speaker 2: dominance and that rise of for profit providers in the
Speaker 2: sectors rather than government run, community run.
Speaker 3: Experts have been telling me that these.
Speaker 2: Big private chains that have moved in, you know, they'll
Speaker 2: have lawyers on retainer when a safety scandal breaks, and
Speaker 2: it's in their interest to protect the company, not kids.
Speaker 3: So there's this real.
Speaker 2: Conflict there about protecting reputation and profit versus protecting children.
Speaker 3: Think about sort of pressuring staff.
Speaker 2: To get more kids through the door all the time,
Speaker 2: even giving them equity in the company, so their income
Speaker 2: is tied to this kind of growth. That's not a
Speaker 2: great incentive to speak up and report. As they tell inquiries,
Speaker 2: they always tell stuff to do.
Speaker 1: Sharon, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. Ruby.
Speaker 1: Also in the news, Environment Minister Murray Watt has rejected
Speaker 1: calls to split the government's proposed Environmental Bill into two stages,
Speaker 1: with laws for streamlining approvals and laws for environmental protections
Speaker 1: to be introduced separately. The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation
Speaker 1: Actors expected to be introduced to Parliament this week, with
Speaker 1: the Coalition calling on the Government to break up the
Speaker 1: legislation with just three sitting weeks of Parliament left. Minister
Speaker 1: What says he's still hope for the bill will be
Speaker 1: passed this year, and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke says
Speaker 1: the Australian government acted on its own intelligence assessments as
Speaker 1: Israel's intelligence agency named an alleged Iranian official behind anti
Speaker 1: Semitic attacks in Australia. MASAD and the Office of the
Speaker 1: Israeli Prime Minister have released a statement identifying a senior
Speaker 1: commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as the person behind
Speaker 1: anti Semitic attacks in Australia last year via a network
Speaker 1: of recruited criminals and secret communications. I'm Ruby Jones. This
Speaker 1: is seven am. Thanks for listening.