Childcare centres: Paedophiles exploit staff shortages and lax regulation to abuse children, inquiry told

Childcare centres are magnets for paedophiles who take advantage of staff shortages, high turnover rates and lax regulation to access and abuse children, and a NSW upper house inquiry into the early childhood education sector has warned more full-time quality staff are needed to keep children safe.

New documents, tabled during a parliamentary inquiry into the state’s besieged childcare sector, have revealed some of Australia’s biggest childcare providers rely on casual staff to keep centres open – creating opportunities for predators to slip through the cracks.

More than 17 per cent of workers at one of Australia’s biggest childcare providers – G8 Education – are casual, while 12 per cent of employees at Affinity are on casual contracts.

Some of Australia’s biggest childcare providers r