Brown is facing accusations of 70 crimes involving eight children at a Melbourne childcare facility, leading to a significant health response where around 2,000 children were tested for possible infectious diseases.

Clare told reporters today that the new details reaffirmed the need for a national register or national database of all registered childcare workers.

“If we build this the right way, it helps us to identify or prompt regular red flags when someone is moving for the wrong reason,” he said.

Clare mentioned that the government plans to expedite child safety improvements to “enhance the system, ensure fairness, and crucially, increase safety” once parliament resumes on Tuesday. This includes legislation that would withdraw funding from childcare centers failing to meet standards.

He, however, dismissed any suggestion that men should not be allowed to work at childcare centres and said the National Child Safety Review and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse did not recommend banning them.

“We know what we need to do here,” he said.

“In none of the reports do they recommend this but they recommend the register and national mandatory safety training, so that the 99.9 per cent of people who work in our centres who are good, honest people who love our kids and care for them and educate our kids, have the skills they need to identify if the person that is up to no good.

“But just cutting blokes out altogether is not going to be the solution.”

Clare added that “just identifying one gender” is not the way to make sure children are cared for and safe.

He previously revealed that his best friend’s daughter had been caught up in the alleged “sickening and serious” childcare abuse in Melbourne, conceding that more needed to be done.

“One of my little guys is in childcare right now, and every educator out there that’s seeing this is angry and furious as well,” he told Today earlier this month.

“The responsibility rests with me as well as every other educator in the country, to make sure that we make our centres safer than they are today.”

Yesterday, Victoria Police said Brown had worked at four additional child care centres in the first update to his known workplaces since they revealed he had been charged on July 1.

G8 Education also said yesterday that Brown had worked at one more childcare centre. 

Investigations remain ongoing as health authorities work with the families of children who attended childcare centres while he worked there. 

Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800.