🟠 News Club - Every parent's nightmare meets policy

News of the arrest of Joshua Brown last week and details of his alleged abuse of kids at a childcare centre in Melbourne were beyond disturbing. And it’s raised some difficult questions about the provision of childcare because we're simultaneously confronting safety failures while doubling down on the system itself. It's expansion v protection playing out in real time, with some very different views on what comes next.

Every parent's nightmare meets policy

For the millions of Australians who've dropped their children at childcare centres - and the community more broadly - the accusations made public last week against Joshua Brown were sickening. One alleged perpetrator. Twenty centres across Melbourne and Geelong. Over 70 charges. Eight years of employment. And 1,200 children requiring STI testing.

It's the kind of crisis that’s thrown up difficult questions about a system we've built our lives and economy around. But here's what makes this moment particularly complex: it's happening just as we’re about to see the nation’s biggest childcare expansion in history. 

So, to this week’s Club Picks to help you get your bearings on this BBQ stopper: 

1.  Sarah Ferguson's interview with Education Minister Jason Clare on ABC TV’s 7.30 last Thursday saw him admit what politicians rarely do: "Ministers haven't been doing enough fast enough ... including me." Clare is a superior media performer for the Albanese Government - but Ferguson didn’t let him off with just accepting the blame. 

2. In case you didn’t know, the 3-day childcare guarantee legislation passed parliament earlier this year. In essence, the government is expanding access to a system while acknowledging it needs fundamental reforms. Or in other words, taxpayers will be spending $17 billion annually subsidising a sector that the minister admits isn't doing enough to protect children…

3. Georgie Dent from The Parenthood argues this crisis demands a National Early Childhood Commission – treating childcare like the massive public investment it really is. Her piece captures the impossible position parents face: "Early-childhood education has enormous benefits. But when cracks appear, we must respond with more than outrage."

4. And for another view, columnist Parnell Palme McGuinness offers the most provocative take: that more regulation misses the point entirely. She argues centre-based care might be fundamentally flawed for babies and asks an uncomfortable question: what if no amount of regulation can make this system safe enough?

The stakes couldn't be higher. This isn't just about policy tweaks or regulatory fixes. It's about whether we can create a system that serves both economic necessity and child welfare – or whether those 2 things are fundamentally in conflict.

Put it on the whiteboard as another theme of 2025 to stay across.