Ministers also agreed to begin work immediately on a national register of educators, with a pilot to launch in December ahead of the full rollout from February.

Other nationally agreed measures include banning mobile phones in centres from September, mandatory national child safety training for all workers and an extra 1,600 spot visits by the federal education department.

‘This is not the end’

“The awful truth is this work will never end because there will always be bad people who try to poke holes in the system and find vulnerabilities.”

Major providers G8 Education and Affinity Education have already committed to installing CCTV in hundreds of their for-profit centres following the allegations emerging against Brown in early July.

“The police tell us that this can be an important aspect in deterring bad behaviour and where bad behaviour does occur, it can be important in their investigation to catch the crooks afterwards,” he said.

Anyone seeking information or support relating to sexual abuse can contact Bravehearts on 1800 272 831 or Blue Knot on 1300 657 380.