Childcare executive told worried parents to stop being emotional in wake of sex abuse charges

A top executive at the embattled childcare giant Affinity Education repeatedly told parents whose children attended a centre where alleged paedophile Joshua Brown worked to stop being emotional.

Parents were left distressed by chief operating officer Nishad Alani’s behaviour during a meeting in July to address safety concerns, which they described as dismissive, highly inappropriate and undermining.

Alani, a 53-year-old Brisbane-based executive, was visiting at the request of families who had learnt Brown, now facing 73 charges including child rape, had worked at 12 Affinity-operated centres.

They also wanted other safety concerns addressed, including Affinity sharing its internal policies with families and discussing necessary upgrades to the fence at the centre attended by the parents’ children.

Concerns about Alani and another senior manager’s behaviour were raised with the executive the day after the July 10 meeting, detailed in leaked emails obtained by this masthead.

In a follow-up email sent to Alani and other attendees the day after with the meeting minutes attached, one parent said they felt it necessary to record Alani’s conduct, describing it as “highly inappropriate” and “counterproductive to the gravity” of the meeting.

Another parent emailed their concerns separately.

“Nishad Alani repeatedly urged parents not to become emotional multiple times and used the phrase ‘don’t kill me’. This language was inappropriate and trivialised the very real harm and trauma being discussed,” the parent wrote.

“Additionally, Nishad’s reference to the board having ‘deep pockets’ gave the impression that financial resourcing alone could repair the organisational shortcomings raised. His request that parents themselves scope safety upgrades like fencing and bollards – while Affinity would simply fund it – was both dismissive and inappropriate. It is comparable to asking gym members to source parts to repair faulty equipment.”

The parents also took issue with the conduct of Affinity’s Victorian state manager, Debbie Smith.

‘This is our children’s safety. Do not ask me to take the emotion out of it.’

A parent whose child attended an Affinity centre

“Debbie Smith drew a direct comparison between [a current educator at our centre] and Joshua Brown, suggesting that our praise of [the educator] today mirrored past comments made about Joshua. This remark was deeply offensive, implying that our concerns were due to parental oversight and casting unfounded aspersions on a valued educator.”

In a reply sent shortly after, Alani said he appreciated the honest feedback. “Let me first start with my deepest apologies for my poor choice of words and for the insensitive comments Deb or I made during our conversation yesterday,” he wrote.

“We are deeply committed to resolving all the outstanding issues and significantly improving the communication channels amongst management and parents. Financial resourcing is not the solution to this problem, it is communication, transparency, commitment and follow-up. Trust is earned, not bought.”

Action points from the meeting have so far been achieved, and safety upgrades to the centre’s fence were completed by Affinity.

One parent told The Age that the meeting felt more like Affinity trying to protect their reputation. “This is our children’s safety. Do not ask me to take the emotion out of it.”

Brown is accused of sexually abusing babies and toddlers at Creative Garden Point Cook, owned by ASX-listed G8 Education, which he allegedly filmed and sent to another man between April 2022 and January 2023.

Sex crime detectives are investigating further suspected abuse at Affinity-operated Papilio Early Learning centre in Essendon, where Brown worked until his arrest on May 12.

An urgent police investigation was sparked after the alleged discovery of a cache of child abuse material in May.

The childcare behemoth has been confronted with serious safety and compliance breaches across its 254 centres, including that it failed to pick up on glaring errors about Brown’s employment history.

Alani, a self-described “seasoned global executive”, joined Affinity in June 2024, after serving as chief executive of Retail Zoo, the parent company of Boost Juice, Betty’s Burgers and Salsas.

The 53-year-old is listed as a director of Affinity’s holding company and owns a minor shareholding in the childcare chain.

Between 2021 and 2024, more than 1700 regulatory breaches were recorded against the company – an average of more than one a day.

On July 10, Queensland Police charged a 21-year-old male employee of an Affinity centre in Brisbane with one count of indecently treating a child.

This masthead revealed Affinity, including the Essendon centre where detectives believe Brown offended, had been put on a government watch list, and that despite tracking its workers with a sophisticated GPS, it provided police with incorrect employment records.

Former and current staff members have also come forward to speak out against a “culture of cover-ups”.

Leaked internal policies obtained by this masthead showed that when handling child safety allegations, staff were instructed to first “crisis manage” if a situation would attract media interest before notifying police.

An Affinity spokesperson declined to comment. Affinity chief executive Tim Hickey also declined a request for interview.

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