Parent's anguish over handing child to alleged abuser

A horrified father who unknowingly handed his daughter over to an alleged sex offender at a local childcare centre is pleading for answers as hundreds of families have their infants tested for infectious diseases.

Father of three, Satbir, who asked that his surname not be used, went to the Creative Garden Early Learning Centre at Point Cook in Melbourne's southwest on Wednesday after recognising the alleged offender on the news.

The troubled father said he was seeking information about Joshua Dale Brown's supervision of his children in 2023.

More than 1200 families with infants and toddlers at the 20 centres where Brown worked since 2017 have been told to get them screened for potential diseases.

Satbir wanted advice on whether two of his children needed to be tested.

"I dropped off my child into his hands a couple of times," Satbir told AAP.

"I'm a bit worried, I (need) to find out everything. I've seen him in the classroom where I dropped my children."

The more than 70 charges against Brown, 26, include sexual penetration of a child under 12, attempted sexual penetration of a child under 12 and producing child abuse material.

He's also been charged with recklessly contaminate goods to cause alarm or anxiety, which is understood to refer to the alleged contamination of food with bodily fluids.

The charges relate to eight alleged victims aged between five months and two years who were enrolled at the Point Cook childcare centre between April 2022 and January 2023.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare has pushed back against a call to ban men from working as early childhood educators, pointing to separate reports of misconduct allegations involving female workers.

"I don't think that's going to be the solution here," Mr Clare told Nine's Today show on Thursday.

When parliament resumes this month, the federal government will introduce legislation to cut funding to childcare centres that breach safety rules.

Opposition shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser on Thursday backed any changes to protect children.

"We have to go to issues of principle here and we won't be playing politics with this issue," he told ABC Radio.

National Children's Commissioner Anne Hollonds has also called for child safety and wellbeing to be a priority for Labor's national cabinet.

Families with children at the 20 centres in Brown's employment history have reported long wait times to access support and health information from a government hotline.

Another parent of a child who attended the Point Cook centre from 2021 to 2023, who declined to give their name, received a generic response from authorities and later found the same information in the news.

"There's a lot of stress, it's very distressing so I needed to come and get some details," he said.

Brown was not known to Victoria Police until the start of the investigation, and there were no formal complaints against him.

He had a valid working with children check.

The Victorian government has ordered an urgent child safety review, a register of all early childhood educators and moved forward a mobile phone ban in facilities to late September with $50,000 fines for breaches.

But the "band-aid measures" don't tackle the root causes of issues in a sector where half of all educators had been working for less than three years, early education advocate Lisa Bryant said.

On Wednesday, parents demanded answers and questioned why "red flags", such as Brown's extensive work history, had not been identified by authorities.

Victoria will consider introducing mandatory CCTV in centres, while there are also calls for a national overhaul of background checks.

On Wednesday, it also emerged that a second man, Michael Simon Wilson, 36, from Hoppers Crossing, had appeared in court on the same day as Brown, charged with child abuse material, sex offences and bestiality.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028