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July 22, 2025 5 mins

A childcare centre director who employed her convicted child sex offender husband as a groundskeeper has been sacked.

There is no allegation he offended against children at the centre, and investigations are ongoing.

Australian correspondent Sam Emery says this story will prompt questions about child safety as Parliament returns.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sam Emery, Australia correspondent with US. Now, hey Sam, have that?
How you going very well? Thank you? Now your childcare
situation just gets worse and worse, doesn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
It's not looking good. This is a horrible story that's
just come out of Queensland Center facing national outrage after
it's emerged that a convicted child sex offender was hired
as a groundskeeper and given full access to the children
for more than a week. The man, who had prior
convictions for indecent treatment of children, somehow past the blue
card screening not once, but twice. The center's director failed

(00:32):
to verify his credentials and has since been sacked, as
reports that it was his partner who even hired him.
So clearly, parents are furious, the center's owners are calling
it unforgivable, and the state and federal governments, who are
the federal governments just back this week for the first
time since the election. They're scrambling to work out whether
it is a gap in the childcare vetting system or

(00:53):
people just simply not doing their job. But the Parliament
returns expect to this will dominate question time, with both
sides backing stronger legislation because you know, it's pretty scary
when a convicted pedophile can slip through the cracks like
that and end up on school grounds. You know. I've
heard some people say that the vetting system works. It's
just a simple case of people not doing their jobs.

(01:15):
So hopefully it's just not lost in question time and
money spent on more inquiries and questions when I think
it's clearly just you know, maybe a bit more stringent,
you know, oversight with the staff and people who run
the centers.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Now, Sam, what is the coalition's position on the signal,
this joint statement on Gaza.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Well, it's clearly a shift for Australia to even come
out and be negative towards Israel. Obviously Australia's joined twenty
eight countries condemning the drone strike that killed in Australian
the aid worker over there. So the Coalition has not
stayed silent. It's first parliament sitting for the new leader,

(01:58):
new Opposition Leader Susan and the Foreign Affairs spokesperson Michalia Cash,
who have slammed this statement as one sided, pointing out
that the letter neglects the October seven terror attack, as
they call it by Hamas. They argue Australia should reaffirm
its support for Israel and their right to self defense
while still pushing for a access to Gaza. Even Simon Birmingham,

(02:21):
Shadow Minister, has come out echoing that Australia must hold
both sides to account, calling out Hamas for breaking cease
fires while also condemning civilian suffering in Gaza. How you
can balance that. I have no idea how I feel
for the government at the moment in this situation, but
there's clear support on the ground with people and that's
why I think they put a government like labor in

(02:44):
that there is support now, you know, for Hamas and
for the Palestinians fought people in Gaza. And it's unusual
in our media here to be sort of hearing this
condemning of a very close ally.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Now interesting and I commented on this just a little
bit earlier, is that it's you guys are going a
lot harder in your media over this particular joint statement
than we are in New Zealand. I can't quite understand
why what's going on. Is it a slow news day
for you guys, or do people in Australia actually genuinely
want to discuss this.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
It's I wouldn't say it's a slow newsday, you know,
with government sitting for the first day. It is. It
is a strangely hot topic here in Australia. Even whether
you're sitting in Parliament or whether you're sitting at a
dinner table, you basically can't really have a conversation without
it getting into this very heated, one sided conversation between

(03:39):
whoever's involved. And it seems that you know, we've got
we've always had a very close alliance with Israel and
you know, as a former journalists, I know that every
time I brought it up on air, there was always
letters following it no matter what you said, you know,
from different organizations and questioning why you were talking about
it in the media. So it's a very tricky and

(04:02):
oddly hot topic for Australia. But it is honestly will
dominate politics, I think, along with the childcare this week,
and I really don't know where they're going to land.
Clearly the public wants support for, you know, the people
who are the civilians who are getting killed and losing

(04:24):
their homes. But yeah, it's a difficult international diplomatic situation
for a new government to be handling.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah, sad wasten. Was it lithium batteries that caused the
fire on the flight?

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yep, it's another thing that's been discussed here in Australia,
these lithian batteries that are in U E bikes and
all these sorts of things and the terrifying scenes aboard.
It sounds like it was all handled very well. Virgin
of come out saying that the plane landed no problems.
It was a Boeing seven three seven at an engine

(04:56):
on the left hand side caught fire just after it
took off, and you know reports in the video if
you're looking at the footage online, you know the flames
licking the sky and all those things on the wing
of the plane. Everyone's worst nightmare when you first get
on a plane. You think, you know, gosh, people were
texting their loved ones. You know, they really didn't think
know where it was going to go and how it

(05:18):
was going to end up for everyone. But thankfully it's
all good news. Everyone is safe. But when you're twenty
thousand feet in the air and the wing looks like
it's on fire, it's certainly something that you don't want
to try and ever have.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
To face alarming Sam. Thanks very much, look after yourself.
Sam Memory, Australia correspondent.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
For more from Hither Duplessy Alan Drive, listen live to
news Talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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