The Victorian health department has acknowledged the distress of a family forced to have their children tested twice for sexually transmitted infections after they attended a childcare centre where alleged paedophile Joshua Dale Brown had worked.
It comes as the state’s premier, Jacinta Allan, defends the appointment of Jay Weatherill to lead an urgent review into childcare safety in Victoria, accusing the opposition of “playing politics”.
Brown was charged in May with more than 70 child abuse offences involving eight alleged victims, aged between five months and two years, but the case only became public on Tuesday after a court suppression order was lifted.
The offences are alleged to have occurred while Brown was working at a childcare centre in Melbourne’s western suburbs. Police are also investigating allegations of offending at a second centre in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.
Authorities released a list of 20 childcare centres where Brown worked between January 2017 and May 2025, along with his known employment dates.
About 2,600 families, whose children attended those centres, were being contacted, with 1,200 children advised to undergo infectious disease screening.
The health department has acknowledged that a family has received conflicting information via text regarding which tests were required for their children.
The messages, first reported by the Age, show the department initially advised a parent on Tuesday to test their children for gonorrhoea and chlamydia. Two days later, another message added syphilis to the list.
While the department said it hadn’t received any direct reports of similar issues, it acknowledged the family’s distress at having to get their children tested twice.
“We acknowledge this is an extremely distressing time for everyone involved, and regret that this family faced additional stress and anxiety,” a department spokesperson said.
“Our highest priority is the health and wellbeing of the families and children involved, and wrap around supports are available.”
The department said different screening tests were recommended for children based on their potential risk exposure, which depended on the time and location of potential exposures to different infections.
It said two children who attended the same centre may not receive the same testing recommendations if they had attended at different times.
Police are also under pressure to explain why the list of centres on the government website had not been updated, after childcare provider Affinity Education, the operator of 10 of the 20 centres on the list, provided additional details about Brown’s work history on Thursday. As of 3pm on Friday, the website had not been updated.
A spokesperson for the force said police were “continuing to work through further material provided to police over the past few days by childcare centres in relation to Brown’s employment history”.
This assessment is “being completed by police as a priority” and all of the childcare providers are “cooperating fully”, the spokesperson said.
“We understand that many in the community are feeling concerned and anxious, however it is incredibly important that this information is confirmed, then thoroughly reviewed with other relevant agencies prior to any public release,” they said.
“Once the assessment is completed, authorities will seek to inform the impacted parties directly and also update the government website.”
Speaking in Benalla on Friday, Allan said the website would be “constantly updated” and it was always expected more details would emerge about Brown’s work history.
“[Police] anticipated that there would be further information [to] come about … the time frames and when this alleged perpetrator worked in different settings, and so that is why we continue to update advice to those affected families,” she said.
Allan said the situation proved the need for a Victorian register of childcare workers, which the government was creating while awaiting a national system.
It has also announced a ban on the use of personal electronic devices, such as mobile phones, in childcare settings and launched an urgent review into the sector to be led by Weatherill and senior public servant Pamela White. The terms of reference for the review are expected to be released on Friday afternoon.
The opposition leader, Brad Battin, said it was disappointing the government had appointed a “Labor ally” to the review, describing it as an “insider-led process designed to protect the government”.
Allan, however, said Weatherill was the “best person to lead this work”.
“He knows the questions to ask. He has seen where the system hasn’t supported children. He can see where vulnerabilities have laid in the past, and that’s why he’s the best person to do this work,” she said.
She accused the opposition of being “reckless” and “playing politics”, arguing that their demand for earlier government action would have breached the suppression order.
“I will not do anything to risk the investigation of Victoria police and seeing justice being served in this instance,” Allan said.
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