Education Minister Jason Clare has rejected calls to ban men from working in the childcare sector in light of allegations against accused paedophile Joshua Dale Brown, saying “just cutting blokes out altogether is not going to be the solution”.

Brown is accused of committing 70 offences against eight children at a childcare centre in Melbourne, prompting a mass health response that saw about 2000 children tested for 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 said the government would fast-track child safety reforms to “make the system better, make it fairer and, importantly, safer” when parliament sits from Tuesday, including laws that would cut funding to childcare centres that are not up to standard.

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.