Published: 3 days ago
Updated: 2 days ago
3 min read

Edwina Bartholomew: Our childcare system has failed us

Following horrifying allegations of abuse in Melbourne, change needs to happen.

26-year-old childcare worker charged with 70 offences

Edwina Bartholomew: Our childcare system has failed us

Following horrifying allegations of abuse in Melbourne, change needs to happen.

How on earth did this happen?

A 26-year-old childcare worker in Melbourne has been charged with 70 offences, including rape and sexual assault.

That’s the headline haunting parents today. The details of the allegations are much, much worse.

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The alleged victims are babies and toddlers, all aged between five months and two years old.

None of them are old enough to defend themselves or even have the words to adequately explain what police allege has happened here.

Joshua Brown has been charged with eight offences of the most disgusting nature.

They allegedly occurred at a childcare in Point Cook between April 2022 and January 2023.

Police say Brown worked at 20 childcare centres between January 2017 and May 2025.

Investigators are also examining evidence of alleged offending at a childcare centre in Essendon.

Thousands of children have come into contact with the offender. More than 1200 have been recommended for screening for infectious diseases.

The infectious diseases that authorities believe some children may have contracted are unclear.

A list of all the places Brown has worked at has been published by the state’s health department, however police are also sending letters to families who may have had a child enrolled at the centres.

Joshua Brown.
Joshua Brown. Credit: 7NEWS

Each time we drop our children to daycare or school, we are trusting that the system will protect them.

If these charges are proven, that system has completely failed all of those children and their parents.

Have a look at the first photos revealed of Joshua Brown. Do they look familiar? He is pictured playing with children and reading books. They are the same kinds of photos we are all sent every day to show us what our kids are doing, who they are playing with and what they are learning when they are not in our care.

Following the allegations, these photos could paint a very different picture of the ultimate act of betrayal.

Brown had a current working with children check but never worked in the same place for long — one day at one centre, a few weeks at another, just a few months at the next.

Were there red flags? Police say, “no”. He was a relief worker, still employed right up until the date he was arrested.

Parents around the country are now asking the same necessary questions about our own childcare choices. Are there security cameras? Are staff left alone with children? Are there barriers and small places where the unthinkable can happen?

New South Wales has faced the same reckoning recently. After reports of children locked in cot rooms and educators being under the influence of drugs and alcohol, widespread changes are being made to the sector. There must now be national leadership to keep all of our kids safe.

As one parent dropping off her child to Point Cook today told reporters: “It’s just the thought as a parent that will haunt me forever”.

It will haunt all of us if we let it happen again.

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