Updated ,first published
The boss of childcare giant Affinity Education was unable to tell a parliamentary inquiry how many breaches of regulations his Victorian centres had incurred, but revealed that accused paedophile Joshua Brown passed all hiring checks.
Affinity chief executive Glen Hurley insisted safety was paramount to the for-profit provider despite its centres being among those where Brown worked.
Brown faces 150 charges for alleged sexual abuse of children in his care. The former childcare worker is also accused of transmitting child abuse material.
Hurley appeared before an inquiry into the early childhood education and care sector on Tuesday, apologising on behalf of the company for the distress caused by incidents at its centres and saying 2025 was “the lowest point” for the sector and for Affinity.
“I found it deeply troubling that the actions of a small number of individuals have cast such a shadow over a profession built on care, trust and responsibility,” he said.
Brown, who worked at 23 centres including 13 run by Affinity, was last year arrested and charged with offences against 12 alleged victims. Police investigations continue.
Hurley took over leadership of Affinity, which operates more than 250 centres across the country, in October after executives Tim Hickey and Nishad Alanie resigned.
Last year, federal Education Minister Jason Clare lashed Affinity for its handling of the Brown case, saying there were “serious questions about how Affinity responded and the assistance they provided police”.
Asked on Tuesday about Brown’s employment, Hurley said that before he was hired as a childcare worker, Brown underwent an extensive hiring process, which included assessing his resume, a phone screening, a national police check, working with children check, checking qualifications and references, and a face-to-face interview with centre managers.
”That process was in place, and those processes were worked through in order to, like all employees … to be offered employment,” Hurley said.
Hurley said they had since strengthened their recruitment process.
Labor upper house MP Michael Galea questioned Hurley on transparency and the number of Affinity centres that exceeded minimum requirements.
Hurley admitted the company didn’t publish the National Quality Frameworks data on the websites of its centres, and said he could not say how many breaches the company’s centres had.
“I don’t have that data here in front of me,” he said. “I can take it [the question] on notice.”
Hurley also refused to share his wage despite his predecessor telling an inquiry hearing last year his base salary was $625,000.
Greens MP Anasina Gray-Barberio replied: “The reasons for these questions, obviously, Affinity is a for-profit, huge player in the early childhood sector, and you’ve got some really serious, distressing issues happening in your centres … Victorian parents, want to know how you are balancing the tensions between safety and profit.”
Gray-Barberio asked what Affinity had done to remedy the issues at its Essendon centre, which had been on a watch list of the former regulator and where Brown was “alleged to be found to be committing, perpetrating abuse on children”. The MP also asked how the centre is rated now.
When Hurley said the centre was now meeting standards, Gray-Barberio said: “But it really should be at exceeding, right?
“If you’re serious about purpose and determination, you would be making every effort to ensure that all your centres under your watch are exceeding.”
Of Affinity’s 52 Victorian centres, 6 per cent are exceeding the national benchmarks, 92 per cent are meeting standards and 2 per cent are working towards the benchmarks.
“I agree that we need to be doing better in this,” Hurley said.
Hurley was also asked about incentives paid to employees, and confirmed they were done based on tenure and enrolment.
“What I will stress is that the safety and quality gates must be met in order for any of those incentives to be unlocked,” he said.
However, Hurley said he didn’t know whether that was the case before he came into the role.
ASX-listed G8 Education chief executive Pejman Okhovat said their hearts went out to the children and families affected by the “devastating and horrific news” that a former educator had been charged of child sex offences in Victoria.
“We are truly sorry for the indescribable pain this has caused them,” he said.
G8 centres were among those where children were allegedly abused, including allegations Brown abused children at its Creative Gardens centre in Point Cook between 2022 and 2023.
G8 has 395 early learning services, employing 2900 team members who care for 12,000 children in 128 Victoria centres.
Another G8 centre in Melbourne’s west has popped up on the new independent regulator VECRA’s website with multiple breaches, unrelated to Brown, which had occurred two years prior.
“Given all the horrors that we’ve seen, heard and read about in the last year, exactly how can I take you by face value everything you said about accountability, governance, change, child safety, child-centred?” pressed Gray-Barberio.
She said the report outlined a vulnerable child with diagnosed disability was found in the middle of a busy road with fast-moving traffic.
“What do you have to say to that as the CEO, the buck stops with you in terms of safety,” asked Grey-Barberio.
Okhovat said the incident was self-reported and was before the court. “We’re absolutely committed to ensuring that we learn from that isolated incident in that centre, and continue to improve.”
Josie King, chief legal quality and risk officer, said it was a “failure of supervision”, and they had policies, procedures and protocols in place. “But like many sectors where you’re dependent on your team to actually implement and execute on those policies and procedures, sometimes there are failings,” said.
King said in terms of Brown, they had no reports internally in respect to any of the allegations of which he has now been charged.
But there were two incidents at G8 involving Brown that were witnessed and reported by their team to the Commission for Children and Young People, the regulators and police on both occasions.
Okhovat said those investigations, which happened between October 2021 and February 2024, were concluded, and Brown was put on a performance improvement plan and further training.
“Why put him on disciplinary action when he was found to be aggressive with children? Why not fire him?” asked Grey-Barebrio.
“At the time when we investigated that situation and the aggressiveness was shouting at children, which we absolutely do not condone, in any shape or format, and we put them on appropriate discipline levels and provide the further coaching and training,” he said.
The second time, he was suspended pending further investigation and he later resigned.
King said it was challenging under “the current regime” to share information about disciplinary outcomes with other employers when there hadn’t reached the standard of a criminal finding.
“Which was one of the reasons we’ve been advocating for clearer and better sharing of information between providers and regulators, so that all the pieces of the puzzle are held and able to be communicated and appropriately triangulated.”
Not-for-profit GoodStart Early Learning chief executive Ros Baxter said they, and many others, have repeatedly called for a national early childhood education and care commission.
She says there needs to be better stewardship of the system as a whole.
The inquiry, which also questioned peak bodies including Early Childhood Australia chief executive Samantha Page, Australian Childcare Alliance president Paul Mondo and the Children and Young People with Disability Australia, heard there needed to be stronger regulation around supply and oversupply of centres.
Baxter said there were more than 500 centres that opened in Australia in the past year, none in childcare deserts, almost all by for-profit providers. She also said the regulator needed more resources to work effectively.
Mondo agreed, saying occupancy could affect quality.
“If you’re at the bread line, unfortunately, you’ve just got to get by. Sometimes, that means that you’re closer to skirting at the edges.”
Mondo called for a federal taskforce to solve the competing priorities for employers when it comes to the tension between employment law, unfair dismissal and responsibilities for child safety.
The national early childhood register rollout begins on February 27, but some large-scale providers said they still had little information on it. The inquiry continues on Wednesday.
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Nicole Precel is an education reporter at The Age. She was previously an audio video producer. She is also a documentary maker. Get in touch at nicole.precel@theage.com.auConnect via X, Facebook or email.
