Four corners have uncovered a devastating surge in serious harm of children at the hands of for-profit childcare providers. They're flooding the sector driven by billions of dollars in government subsidies and are cutting corners to make a buck while regulators look the other way. And a warning this story contains descriptions of child sexual abuse.
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00:00This mother trusted her son would be safe at childcare, but then she captured her four-year-old's
00:08harrowing revelation on video.
00:10And what did you say he was doing? You can tell me.
00:13He pinched me in the door. That's what he's done.
00:18The worker, Muhammad Ali, is now serving an 18-month prison sentence after being found
00:23guilty of indecently touching a child. Court documents reveal prior to joining the centre,
00:29he was unemployed twice due to drug use.
00:32The boy's mother says parents at the centre were never told their children had been in
00:36the care of a sex offender.
00:38Everything's a secret and they don't care about your kids. They're there to make money
00:44and that's the bottom line.
00:47Government data shows a disturbing surge in serious incidents. Every day at least seven
00:52children vanish from or are locked outside childcare centres in Australia. Every year
00:57more than 3,000 babies and toddlers are hospitalised with childcare-related injuries. There's
01:03one report of sexual misconduct or offence a day in Victorian, West Australian and New
01:08South Wales childcare centres. In other jurisdictions, there's no reportable conduct scheme.
01:14If the public had even the slightest idea of how horrendous these incidents are in a
01:21lot of these centres, there would be an absolute uproar.
01:27A lot of it is happening at the hands of centres owned privately, some backed by private equity.
01:33They take over services in order to squeeze as much profit out of them as possible. They're
01:40leaving just the worst places behind that you would ever want to send your child.
01:47In the last decade, for-profit providers have opened 95% of all childcare centres.
01:53We had occupancy targets, wage targets, so labour targets, revenue and profit targets.
02:00Childcare has national quality standards which are enforced by the states.
02:04The thing that frightens me most is how uninterested governments are in this problem.
02:09I think we absolutely have to have some form of royal commission, public inquiries where
02:19people can come and tell their stories.
02:21A betrayal of trust for those who deserve better.