Another Monster, Another State, Same Broken System

We’ve had another huge case of a grown man sexually assaulting toddlers at multiple child care centres, this time in Victoria. Joshua Brown has been charged with 70 offences – and 1200 kids are being tested for infectious diseases. Imagine how the parents must feel, having left their children in facilities which are supposed to keep them safe and protected. And now they’ll have to deal with the after effects of this monster’s behaviour.

It’s unbelievable. And it’s not the first time.

In Queensland a case came to light in 2023, before it became legal to name the perpetrator.

The Australian Federal Police released a statement. “The Gold Coast man, 46, pleaded guilty on 2 September, 2024, to 307 charges, including 15 counts of repeated sexual contact with a child, 28 counts of rape and 190 counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16.” This happened at multiple child care centres. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Both men had the necessary certification. To work with young children in Queensland you generally need a Blue Card and a Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care (or higher). The Blue Card is a Working with Children Check, and the Certificate III provides the foundational skills for working in early childhood settings. Here’s the website. Victoria has a similar requirement.

Surely something should have been done to prevent this sort of thing happening again after the Queensland incident. Lots of shock-horror isn’t it disgusting back then. I think the Queensland system was strengthened but it isn’t enough. As is so often the case in Australia, matters of this kind are left to the states, so every state has a different system. Hetty Johnson, founder of child abuse advocacy Bravehearts, talked about the Queensland case in this article.

“Police of course worked through the night to make sure they could do as much as they could to get on top of all of this,” she said. “But it’s not good, by any stretch of the imagination. This is just horrific. We have got 640 kids there who are just left hanging in the wind. But now what we have to do is react responsibly; I mean these little ad hoc computer systems that are going on around the country are not the solution. We need to get smarter, we need to prioritise our children and get this right. Because every complaint is just part of the picture of a child and it’s all in little silos all over the place.”

Yet here we are in 2025 and it’s happened again, in a different state.

I listened to Hetty Johnston talk about the Victorian case on the radio. She said it’s time we had a national system. Braveheart offers training courses that educate administrators and childcare workers about sexual assault. Here’s a link to the organisation’s very affordable training. Apart from the blue card, training like this should be compulsory for people who work with small children. Indeed, she pointed out that it’s not just children who are preyed upon, it’s disabled people, and those in aged care.

Of course, some people are suggesting that men should be barred from working in child care. But that’s a blanket ban which is not only unfair to the decent blokes out there, it’s also not good for the kids. It’s good for them to have men in their lives as well as women.

Let’s hope the Powers That Be get their act together and do something to protect our most vulnerable.

And as usual I’ve been doing some reading. Here’s my opinion on the sequel to the Merlin trilogy.