‘Truly sickening’: Union, advocates demand action on childcare governance failures

An explosive Four Corners report, revealing the extent to which paedophiles have infiltrated Australia’s multibillion-dollar childcare sector, has led to calls for substantial workplace reform.

Earlier this week, ABC’s Four Corners program reported on its ongoing investigation into the childcare sector, detailing how child sex offenders are “exploiting lax regulation, piecemeal oversight and glaring staffing inadequacies”.

Four Corners identified nearly 150 childcare workers convicted, charged, or accused of sexual abuse and inappropriate conduct, just over 40 of whom were convicted and sentenced in the past five years alone, with another 14 having their proceedings currently before the courts.

“The public records we have pieced together show the rate of offending in childcare is increasing – exposing a system that has allowed predators to thrive,” ABC wrote on the website about the investigation.

“With barely 15 per cent of reports of child sexual abuse leading to charges and only 2 per cent leading to a conviction, experts say the real number of predators who have worked in childcare over the years is likely in the thousands.”

Union ‘deeply disturbed’

The NSW/ACT branch of the Independent Education Union of Australia expressed shock at the Four Corners report, with branch secretary Carol Matthews saying that children should never be the victims of cost-cutting by private equity and other for-profit players to boost profits and shareholder returns.

“We are deeply disturbed by the revelations in Four Corners and share the anger of parents whose children have been harmed by criminals who have infiltrated a sector in crisis because of the failings of some for-profit childcare centres,” she said.

“The sector needs reform – the focus on profits rather than high-quality education and care is behind the crimes and serious safety breaches uncovered by Four Corners. Cost-cutting, high staff turnover, and child-to-staff ratios that are routinely gamed are leading to inadequate supervision of young children, which risks their safety.”

The union said it welcomes measures to rebuild confidence in the sector by establishing a strong child safety culture, but noted that both the NSW and federal governments must also fix the workforce crisis caused by low pay and excessive workloads that is leading to staff burnout and an exodus from the sector.

“The union has repeatedly raised issues that impact the early childhood sector such as ongoing teacher shortages leading to inadequate staffing ratios. Compulsory child safety training for centre operators as well as staff is essential,” Matthews said.

“The wellbeing of children should never be sacrificed for the sake of profit.”

Parents’ fury

Parental advocacy group For Parents responded to the program by saying that families have “lost trust in Australia’s broken childcare system”, and are calling for urgent change to give parents genuine choice and a stronger voice in who cares for their children.

For Parents co-founder Cecilia Cobb said: “The revelations were truly sickening.”

“Australian parents are sick of the government offering up Band-Aid solutions to a system [that] is so clearly failing our children. Due to the inflexibility of the Child Care Subsidy, parents across Australia are feeling trapped using a childcare system they don’t trust.”

Fellow co-founder, Jen Fleming, added: “One and a half million Aussie kids will be dropped off at a childcare centre tomorrow. Those parents are left with no choice and no alternatives.”

“The childcare operators will still get paid, whether those children go or not. And this is wrong.”

“Parents need the subsidy to be handed over to them to choose the care that works for their family. It shouldn’t be given to billion-dollar companies, who are listed on stock exchanges across the world, making money from our vulnerable children, yet still failing to keep them safe.”

Cobb further called for parliamentary intervention: “We need to act for our children. Not for providers. Not for educators and unions. This is about putting out children first, once and for all and expanding the Child Care Subsidy immediately.”

“The report calls for a royal commission into this issue, and there should be one, but it cannot be an abdication of immediate accountability from this government.”