Archive July 2, 2025

Australia has announced plans to tighten oversight of childcare facilities after a man in Melbourne was charged with dozens of sexual offences against children in his care.

The moves come after police in the southern state of Victoria announced on Tuesday that they had charged a 26-year-old childcare worker with more than 70 child sex offences, including rape.

The man, identified as Joshua Dale Brown, is accused of abusing eight victims, aged between five months and two years, at a childcare centre in Melbourne’s western suburbs.

Police have said they are also investigating evidence of abuse at a second childcare centre in the northwest of the city.

Authorities say the accused worked at 20 childcare facilities in total during an eight-year span that lasted until May.

Health authorities in Victoria have recommended that 1, 200 children linked to facilities where the man worked be tested for infectious diseases as a precautionary measure.

On Wednesday, Australian Education Minister Jason Clare said he would press ahead with legislation to strip funding from childcare facilities that do not meet adequate safety standards and examine other potential measures, including strengthening background checks for those working with minors.

“Any Australian who heard the news from Victoria yesterday would be sickened by what they heard”, Clare said during a news conference in Sydney.

“And for every parent that is directly affected by this in Victoria, they would be frightened and they’d be angry”.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said she would introduce a state register of childcare workers and ban personal devices at childcare centres from September.

Allan said her government would also commence an “urgent review” to examine options for improving safety in the sector, including potentially installing security cameras in childcare facilities.

“We will adopt every recommendation of the review and implement them as quickly as possible”, Allan said in a statement.

“Following yesterday, I know too many families are suffering unbearable pain and uncertainty. I cannot imagine what they are going through”.

The latest safety scare to engulf Australia’s childcare sector comes less than a year after a Queensland man pleaded guilty to sexually abusing dozens of girls at childcare centres in one of the worst paedophile cases in the country’s history.

United States media giant Paramount has agreed to pay $16m to settle a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump over the editing of a 2024 interview aired by CBS, its subsidiary.

The payout announced on Wednesday will go towards Trump’s planned presidential library, with Paramount stating the funds would not be given to him “directly or indirectly”.

The case stems from a broadcast of 60 Minutes featuring then-Vice President Kamala Harris, which Trump alleged had been deceptively edited to benefit the Democratic Party before the 2024 election. Trump initially sought $10bn in damages, later raising the claim to $20bn.

While CBS had described the lawsuit as “completely without merit” and sought its dismissal, the case proceeded to mediation in April. “The settlement does not include a statement of apology or regret”, the company statement added.

As part of the settlement, 60 Minutes will begin releasing interview transcripts with future presidential candidates following their broadcast, except where legal or national security concerns apply.

Trump had alleged that the edited Harris interview – in which her comments on Israel’s war on Gaza appeared inconsistent – violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act, which makes it illegal to use false, misleading or deceptive acts in commerce.

Legal analysts and press freedom groups have raised concerns over Trump’s use of consumer protection laws against media outlets, warning it may be a tactic to sidestep constitutional protections afforded to journalists, who can only be held liable for defamation against public figures if they say something they knew or should have known was false.

Neither the White House nor Trump’s legal team has commented on the settlement.

The settlement follows a decision by Disney-owned ABC News in December to settle a defamation suit with a $15m donation to Trump’s library and issue a public apology over inaccurate on-air comments.