Victoria Cracks Down on Childcare Abuse with Phone Ban and $50K Fines

Victorian childcare centres could be fined up to $50,000 if they do not ban their workers from carrying smartphones, as officials scramble to bolster the “failing” system amid a widening child sex abuse crisis.

Premier Jacinta Allan unveiled a suite of measures to crack down on the sector after 26-year-old childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown was accused of abusing eight young children inside a Melbourne childcare centre.

A ban on smartphones will be enforced from September 26. If a provider does not sign up to the ban, they will have conditions added to their licence. Breaches will attract fines of up to $50,000.

Phone bans are already part of a national framework used within early childhood education and care, but providers must choose to enforce the ban.

“To avoid delay, we’ll be putting all Victorian childcare centres on notice. They will be required to adopt this ban on personal devices,” Allan told reporters on Wednesday.

The state government will also commission an urgent review into childcare safety. A leader for the review will be appointed by the end of the week.

“This will be a short, sharp piece of work that will focus on the immediate actions that we can take, based on that body of work that is going on across Commonwealth and state and territory jurisdictions, but also, too, looking at what further can be done with a sense of urgency,” Allan said.

Victoria will start building a statewide register of childcare workers, which is also being considered at a national level.

“I appreciate there is a substantial amount of work that is already under way across the Commonwealth and state and territory governments to strengthen the safety in the sector here in Victoria, [but] I won’t wait,” Allan said. “Families cannot wait.”

Earlier on Wednesday, federal Education Minister Jason Clare revealed he put child safety on the agenda last Friday during a meeting with his state-based colleagues, after he was briefed on the Melbourne childcare worker charged with more than 70 sex offences against children in his care.

I was informed about this just over a week ago by the Victorian government.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare

The families of the eight alleged victims were informed last week but parents of other children were not told until Tuesday this week.

“I was informed about this just over a week ago by the Victorian government. It’s the reason I put this on the agenda for education ministers when we met last Friday,” Clare told ABC Radio National on Wednesday.

“I’m certain that the Victorian government took the steps that they needed to take with police and with the relevant authorities, to make sure that when they advised parents and did so as soon as they possibly could, they were in a position to provide the necessary advice and support for parents.”

Detectives allegedly discovered Brown had a cache of child abuse material and had filmed children who attended Creative Garden Early Learning Centre at Point Cook, in Melbourne’s south-west, between April 2022 and January 2023 .

The eight alleged victims were aged between five months and two years old.

Police tracked his work history, uncovering his employment at 20 childcare centres across Melbourne since 2017.

Detectives have since shifted their investigation to focus on whether more alleged abuse occurred at other daycare centres. The Victorian government has ordered the early childhood regulator to investigate the conduct of the childcare operators for whom Brown worked.

Victorian Minister for Children Lizzie Blandthorn told reporters on Tuesday she was briefed on the case “a couple of weeks ago”.

The regulator’s review into childcare centres where Brown worked could not begin until Tuesday, to avoid compromising the police investigation.

“There is a memorandum of understanding between the Department of Education and Victoria Police as to how these types of investigations will be managed,” Blandthorn said.

Police said Brown had a valid working with children check and no criminal history prior to his May 12 arrest.

The working with children check system is under review, but Clare warned on Wednesday the clearance checks were not a “silver bullet”.

“This alleged perpetrator had no criminal record,” he told ABC radio. “That doesn’t mean that working with children checks can’t be improved right across the country.”

Clare accepted work to implement child safety changes following the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was “too slow”.

Victoria’s premier announced an initial review of the working with children check system in April this year, and repeated this week that changes to screening childcare workers would come into effect in August.

Under the current system, prohibition notices banning people from working in schools or daycares are not considered when determining an applicant’s working with children check clearance. Clearance can only be revoked because of criminal charges, or a regulatory finding.

Experts unanimously say that element is one of the system’s major shortfalls. Factoring prohibition notices into working with children checks will be among the changes coming into effect in Victoria in August.

National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds said the childcare system had repeatedly “failed” families, and authorities have allowed “holes” in child safety scaffolding across the nation.

“We haven’t closed those holes despite many recommendations from numerous inquiries. And so, yes, this is going to happen again, it won’t be the last time, unless we urgently act on this now,” Hollonds told ABC Radio Melbourne on Wednesday.

“From my perspective, I’m pretty clear [we haven’t done this] because child safety and wellbeing is not a priority in this country.”

The Victorian Health Department has recommended 1200 children who attended childcare centres he worked for be tested for sexually transmitted infections out of “an abundance of caution”.

Brown is due to face court on September 15.

His case is a fresh blow for the embattled childcare sector after child sex abuse scandals in Sydney and Brisbane , devastating stories of abuse and neglect in for-profit centres around the country, corporate collapses and accusations of financial misconduct .

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732).

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