Head of childcare giant Affinity says Joshua Brown ticked company’s hiring boxes

The boss of childcare giant Affinity Education was unable to tell a parliamentary inquiry how many breaches of regulations his Victorian centres had incurred, but has revealed that accused paedophile Joshua Brown passed all hiring checks.

Affinity chief executive Glen Hurley insisted safety was paramount to the for-profit provider despite its centres being at the heart of the more than 150 charges Brown now faces for alleged sexual abuse of children in his care. The former childcare worker is also accused of transmitting child abuse material.

Hurley on Tuesday appeared before an inquiry into the early childhood education and care sector, and apologised on behalf of the company for the distress caused by incidents at its centres. He said 2025 was “the lowest point” for the sector and for Affinity.

“I found it deeply troubling that the actions of a small number of individuals have cast such a shadow over a profession built on care, trust and responsibility,” he said.

Brown, who worked at 23 centres including ones run by Affinity, was last year arrested and charged with offences against 12 alleged victims. Police investigations continue.

Hurley took over leadership of Affinity in October, which operates more than 250 centres across the country, after executives Tim Hickey and Nishad Alanie resigned in October.

Last year, federal Education Minister Jason Clare lashed Affinity for its handling of the Brown case, and said “there are serious questions about how Affinity responded and the assistance they provided police”.

Asked on Tuesday about Brown’s employment, Hurley said that before Brown was hired as a childcare worker, he underwent an extensive hiring processes, which included assessing his resume, a phone screening, a national police check, working with children’s check, checking qualifications and references, before a face-to-face interview with centre managers.

“That process was in place, and those processes were worked through in order to, like all employees that would have walked through that process, to be offered employment and to take employment,” Hurley said.

Labor upper house MP Michael Galea questioned Hurley on transparency and the number of Affinity centres that exceeded minimum requirements.

Hurley admitted the company didn’t publish the National Quality Frameworks data on the websites of its centres, and said he could not say how many breaches the company’s centres had.

“I don’t have that data here in front of me,” he said. “I can take it on notice.”

Hurley also refused to share his wage despite his predecessor telling an inquiry hearing last year that his base salary was $625,000.

Greens MP Anasina Gray-Barberio replied: “The reasons for these questions, obviously, Affinity is a for-profit, huge player in the early childhood sector, and you’ve got some really serious, distressing issues happening in your centres. So parents, Victorian parents, want to know how you are balancing the tensions between safety and profit.”

Gray-Barberio asked what Affinity had done to remedy the issues at its Essendon centre, which had been on a watch list of the former childcare regulator and where Brown was “alleged to be found to be committing, perpetrating abuse on children”. The MP also asked how the centre is rated now.

When Hurley said the centre was now meeting standards, Gray-Barberio said: “But it really should be at exceeding, right?

“If you’re serious about purpose and determination, you would be making every effort to ensure that all your centres under your watch are exceeding.”

Of Affinity’s 52 Victorian centres, 6 per cent are exceeding the national benchmarks, 92 per cent are meeting standards and 2 per cent are working towards the benchmarks.

“I agree that we need to be doing better in this,” Hurley said.

Hurley was also asked about incentives paid to employees, and confirmed they were done based on tenure and enrolment.

“What I will stress is that the safety and quality gates must be met in order for any of those incentives to be unlocked,” he said.

However, Hurley said he didn’t know whether that was the case before he came into the role in October.

The boss of G8 Education, another childcare company that employed Brown, is expected to appear before the inquiry on Tuesday afternoon.

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