NSW upper house committee to launch inquiry into troubled childcare sector

A powerful parliamentary inquiry has been called into the troubled childcare sector in the wake of a landmark ABC investigation that exposed regulatory failures and serious safety breaches, particularly within large for-profit providers.

After Four Corners aired, hundreds of insiders and whistleblowers have come forward, with grave concerns about the state of child care in Australia and how it's failing families.

On Thursday night the NSW upper house committee on education met and unanimously backed an inquiry.

Chaired by Greens MP Abigail Boyd, the inquiry aims to scrutinise the performance of the NSW regulator, which some experts say is not fit for purpose.

The terms of reference also include looking into the health and safety of children in child care, the quality of services and the pay and conditions of the workforce.

"Monday's Four Corners exposé has sparked an outpouring of public support for urgent action on the failures in our early learning system," Ms Boyd said.

"Dropping your child off at an early learning centre in the morning is an enormous act of trust, but it doesn't need to be a blind leap of faith. Families deserve transparency and accountability, and that's what a parliamentary investigation can help to deliver."

She said as chair of this new inquiry, she would ensure it uncovered the real reasons behind the alarming rise in harmful incidents in NSW centres and take decisive action to clean up this sector.

"The safety of our children and workers is non-negotiable."

Submissions will remain open until the end of May, with public hearings scheduled for August, September and October in Sydney and regional NSW.

Documents released

It comes as the NSW childcare regulator released a tranche of documents in response to a parliamentary order.

On Thursday, six boxes of documents were released including information about 3 Bears childcare group, run by Dinh Trang, who featured in the Four Corners report.

Issues date back to 2010. Between 2014 and 2024 the group attracted more than 360 breaches, show cause, prohibition and emergency action notices. All three centres never met the minimum national quality standards. It took the NSW regulator until 2024 to finally act and close the three centres.

Trang had previously told Four Corners most of the claims were unfounded and is challenging them in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Other documents include breach notices and national quality standard reviews into Angel's Paradise Revesby, which highlight years of failures.

The Revesby childcare centre racked up 28 breaches of the law and compliance actions since September 2015, according to the documents.

The centre, which opened in 2013, was given the lowest possible national quality standards rating in 2023, known as a "significant improvement required," which means urgent improvements were necessary.

After a reassessment in March 2024, its rating was upgraded to "working towards," which is still below the national quality standards.

Documents allege a staff member had no working-with-children check, children were not adequately supervised and kids being left alone with people who were not staff members, as well as hygiene breaches.

"The ongoing non-compliance occurring at the service indicates that the approved provider has failed to take adequate action to address risks to children. The department holds significant concerns about the operation of the service after identifying practice that is a significant risk to children," according to a NSW department of education document sent to the service on September 17, 2015.

A spokesperson for the centre told ABC that much of the information in the documents was incorrect, but did not provide further details.

Angel's Paradise in Wagga Wagga was closed down recently after revelations that kids were eating food scraps off the floor, children were left unsupervised and were not administered first aid after injuries.

The centre, which is no longer associated with Revesby, was shut in September 2024.

Systemic issues in sector

The latest documents highlight serious systemic issues in Australia's childcare sector.

The NSW inquiry will look into these issues with broad investigative powers, including the ability to call senior executives from childcare companies, parents, experts and peak bodies to provide evidence.

It follows a move by the NSW government to launch an internal inquiry into the regulator two weeks ago, which Ms Boyd said was designed to deflect a standing order 52.

The request was made in November but she said she has had significant pushback, which culminated in Ms Boyd passing a censure motion earlier this week calling for the release of the documents.

The government now has 14 days to comply and release the files or face further sanction.

Ms Boyd has seen some of the documents, which are sitting in privilege boxes, and wants them released publicly.

"If the public had even the slightest idea of how horrendous these incidents are in a lot of these centres, there would be an absolute uproar. And they don't want to have to deal with that. They don't want to have to deal with the angry parents wanting to know why they weren't told earlier that these things were happening at the places they're leaving their children," she said.

Four Corners exposed serious issues in child care, including cutting corners to boost profits by imposing financial targets on centre managers such as food targets, occupancy targets and staff-to-wage targets.

The investigation found evidence of some centres serving kids 33-cent meals, underpaying educators, and hiring unqualified workers, to maximise profits.