A damning document dump has exposed that dozens of G8 Education's childcare centers in New South Wales have exposed children to serious safety risks, such as toxic chemicals, inappropriate discipline, yelling, missing children, and disturbing cases of alleged sexual assaults. G8 Education is Australia's billion-dollar listed childcare empire.
In response to a parliamentary order, the NSW Department of Education disclosed hundreds of pages of documentation detailing the occurrences.
The disclosures come as part of a significant ABC investigation into the $20 billion childcare business, which revealed a field characterized by systemic flaws, secrecy, and an increasing number of severe accidents at some of the biggest for-profit providers in the nation.
The story sparked a nationwide discussion. Within days, the federal Greens demanded a royal commission, federal crossbenchers and peak bodies begged for comprehensive reforms, and the NSW parliament initiated a parliamentary inquiry.
One of the more prominent violations occurred in 2022 at G8's First Grammar in Sydney's Condell Park, where a youngster was discovered playing in an outside trough of undrained rainwater after being left entirely unattended for 20 minutes. The parents of the child were not informed in a timely manner.
Children being exposed to mold; centers holding expired medication, including EpiPens for anaphylactic children; cot rooms with electrical cords, artificial vines, and plastic string within infant reach; centers unable to provide early childhood qualifications records for their staff or working with children checks; racially inappropriate interactions in front of children; the use of profanity; and one incident where a child was allegedly struck in the chest and fell against a wall were among the other violations documented between 2021 and 2024.
In order to expose an industry in crisis, NSW Greens MP Abigail Boyd, who has been working with the ABC for six months, utilized parliamentary authorities to obtain and distribute hundreds of compliance letters, emergency action notices, and show-cause warnings that had not been previously visible.
Some of the records were made public by the NSW childcare authority, but most are still under parliamentary privilege or have not yet been made public. In response to a parliamentary order, a series of documents was made public on Wednesday night, naming G8 as the most recent childcare provider.
Under more than 20 brands, such as Community Kids, Great Beginnings, The Learning Sanctuary, and World of Learning, the organization runs more than 400 centers around Australia, providing weekly care for over 41,000 children.
With over $1 billion in revenue, it had a net profit of about $67 million in 2024.
Some of its centers charge families as much as $170 per day, or over $850 per week; nevertheless, many of the centers that were documented between 2021 and 2024 had fundamental safety and hygiene issues.
Notwithstanding the company's size and financial success, it was discovered that several centers had outdated fixtures that presented safety risks, including rotting wood on verandas, stained and lifting laminate, children's lockers with exposed wood edges, and carpets that were frayed and discolored. Some of them were dirty or in poor condition; for example, there were complaints of dirt and grime on the changing benches and diaper change mats, broken bathroom tiles, and door frames that were falling off the wall. Numerous instances of inadequate hygiene were documented, including as when a cook at one facility was seen cleaning her nose without gloves before continuing to prepare the meal by an authorized NSW regulator. A bottle of infant formula was lying on the ground at another facility.
The NSW regulator said that Greenwood Penrith, one of its centers, constituted "an unacceptable risk to the safety, health and well-being of children at the service" and issued a show-cause notice in June 2022. It was able to carry on with business as usual after persuading the regulator that it had resolved the significant problems. In another instance, on March 29, 2022, a kid fled from Kindy Patch Cuddly Bear in Queanbeyan, leading to the issuance of a compliance notice. The child was left alone and was able to "scale a low-lying fence, behind a sandpit area" before leaving, according to a compliance notice sent to G8. As they came for their duty, a staff worker stopped another child who attempted to leave. The regulator in NSW was
Other incidents included the 2021 slapping and pinching of a child's face by a teacher at the St Marina Early Learning Centre in Parramatta. On September 21, 2021, a youngster at Vaucluse Kinder Haven was missing for twelve minutes. On November 12, 2021, a youngster at Grafton's Arthur Street Children's Centre revealed that another child had groped her genitalia while observing her use the restroom in the preschool. Teachers did not have direct supervision over the pupils. At Community Kids Cessnock Early Education Centre, there have been instances of employees lacking a current working with children check and without any documentation of their early childhood education.
"As a child-safe organization, we have introduced police checks for key center-based team members in addition to mandatory state-based working-with-children checks," the statement read. "G8 Education is dedicated to making sure that our centers are safe spaces, and we have a strong culture of self-reporting." Ms. Boyd stated that as G8 was a national organization, it was illogical to presume that breaches of this kind and regularity only occurred in New South Wales. "While each one of these episodes alone might not raise much concern, the patterns of offense and the systems that allow them to happen call for a comprehensive understanding of this industry. There is nothing more crucial than examining the sector in charge of the care with a hard and unwavering gaze.
Government subsidies totaling billions of dollars support Australia's daycare industry. Nearly three-quarters of the lengthy daycare market is for-profit, and 95% of all newly opened childcare facilities in the last ten years alone are for-profit. Real estate barons, developers, private equity firms, and listed businesses are all flooding into the market. According to Professor Gabrielle Meagher, a specialist in privatized social service systems, it has led to an uneasy situation where corporate businesses profit from the education of young children while attempting to maximize profits. "There is ample proof that big, for-profit companies typically provide lower-quality services. They employ more casual and part-time employees. "They have a higher turnover rate and pay lower wages," she claimed. It comes to a total of "It adds up to a whole picture of a misalignment of incentives between the goals of these organizations and the public purpose and families and children's needs." A request for comment has been made to the NSW Department of Education.
Reference:
Documents Expose Safety Breaches At G8 Education Childcare Centres, ABC Australia
A damning document dump has exposed that dozens of G8 Education's childcare centers in New South Wales have exposed children to serious safety risks, such as toxic chemicals, inappropriate discipline, yelling, missing children, and disturbing cases of alleged sexual assaults. G8 Education is Australia's billion-dollar listed childcare empire.
