Chris Gillett

2 weeks ago | abc.net.au | Adele Ferguson |Chris Gillett

Some of the country's largest childcare operators are named in a damning cache of regulatory documents the NSW government and regulator tried to keep hidden from the public. The documents detail hundreds of disturbing cases of babies and toddlers being forcibly dragged, pulled, kicked, force-fed, used as a human mop and in some instances, inappropriate sexual behaviour. Some incidents resulted in serious injuries including dislocated elbows, fractures, burns, a fractured skull, and a haematoma.

4 weeks ago | abc.net.au | Adele Ferguson |Chris Gillett

G8 Education, Australia's billion-dollar listed childcare empire, has become embroiled in a damning document dump revealing dozens of its centres in NSW have exposed children to serious safety risks including toxic chemicals, inappropriate discipline, yelling, children going missing and disturbing cases of alleged sexual assaults. The incidents were detailed in hundreds of pages of documents released by the NSW Department of Education in response to a parliamentary order.

1 month ago | abc.net.au | Adele Ferguson |Chris Gillett

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 childcare in Australia and how it's failing families.

1 month ago | abc.net.au | Adele Ferguson |Chris Gillett |Lara Sonnenschein

Insiders say parents are being lied to about the quality of food served at childcare centres, with some spending as little as 33 cents per meal on children. Families and staff said the standard of food at some for-profit childcare centres was "substandard" and "heartbreaking". Jenny Shih said the Genius childcare centre at Reservoir in Melbourne deteriorated before her eyes after she enrolled her child in 2023. Ms Shih was paying $140 a day, or $700 a week per child, at the Genius centre.

Nov 27, 2024 | abc.net.au | Adele Ferguson |Ben Butler |Chris Gillett

The Victorian government will become the first state to force retirement village operators to sign up to a mandatory code of conduct as part of a crackdown on the sector that also includes more transparency on how fees are calculated. The overhaul follows an ABC investigation into the sector that exposed some operators gouging residents by charging exit fees of as much as 60 per cent of the home's purchase price plus the cost of refurbishing the villa when they sell up.