Sawt Falasteen - Predators 'slip through the cracks' in Australian childcare

New legislation will bring in a national register of childcare workers from 2026, impose compulsory safety training, ban the use of personal phones by carers and start a trial of CCTV monitoring.

It aims to address safety deficiencies in a childcare sector that has boomed thanks to government funding.

In Australia's most notorious case, nursery school worker Ashley Paul Griffith preyed on children for nearly 20 years.

He pled guilty last year to more than 300 charges of abusing and raping over 60 children -- most of them girls -- while working in childcare centres between 2003 and 2022.

Some of his victims may have been as young as 12 months old, police say.

Griffith, who was sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 27 years, has filed for an appeal against the sentence.

In July this year, another case shook the sector.

The state of Victoria's police charged 26-year-old Joshua Dale Brown with more than 70 crimes against eight children aged from five months to two years.

Brown worked at 23 Melbourne nursery schools over eight years, police say, and the authorities advised that about 2,000 children who may have been in contact with him should be tested for potential exposure to infectious diseases.

An Australian law firm acting for one parent is suing national childcare operator G8, which ran several centres where Brown worked, and it says more than 100 other families have sought its advice.

- 'Reaping the whirlwind' -

"These parents are traumatised," Arnold Thomas & Becker principal lawyer Jodie Harris told The Age newspaper.

"One parent is ringing me saying the other one can't get out of bed."

Federal and state subsidies have helped to finance a 60-percent surge in childcare centres in Australia over the past decade.

The money goes to both not-for-profit operations and profit-chasing businesses, which last year made up about 70 percent of the total.

Some of the for-profit businesses have been accused of putting money ahead of quality.

Analysts say regulations have failed to keep up with the expansion of the sector.

Is Australia's childcare system safe?

"The answer is no," said University of New South Wales Professor Michael Salter, a leading authority on child sexual exploitation and abuse.

Childcare had expanded in the past 10-15 years with government policies aimed at helping women enter the workforce, he told AFP, while for-profit businesses have joined the industry.

"Alongside that has come a lack of regulatory grunt in terms of enforcing standards and, I think, a willingness to compromise on safety standards across the sector as it's gotten larger," Salter said.

"We are really reaping the whirlwind of that now."

The federal government says it recognises the system needs "long-overdue improvements".

- 'Time to stop predators' -

Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said "meaningful change" is needed "urgently".

"It's time to stop predators exploiting cracks in the hodgepodge of separate systems around the country," she said in July.

A 2017 Royal Commission into child sex abuse in institutional settings made hundreds of recommendations including mandatory reporting, better education and whistleblower protections.

While the government insists the majority of those suggestions have been put into practice, there is no national register that documents a worker's history, qualifications and pending allegations or investigations.

Each state instead collects its own information and sharing mechanisms are not always adequate, analysts say, creating a gap if the worker moves.

"It's a system that has allowed for these predators to slip through the cracks," child protection group Bravehearts chief executive Alison Geale said.

"Everyone has to play their part," Geale said. "When one element doesn't work... we have children that are abused."

In August, Australia's federal government unveiled new measures, including a national educator register to be rolled out in early 2026 and mandatory staff training.

Authorities will also start a trial of CCTV in 300 childcare centres.

Staff use of mobile phones while supervising children would also be prohibited.

"We have to do everything that we can to ensure the safety of our children when they walk or when they're carried through the doors of a childcare centre," Education Minister Jason Clare told parliament.

"There's a lot more that needs to be done."

R.Halabi--SF-PST