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BORDER families relying on family day care could be among those most keenly hit by legislative changes the industry’s peak body says were slipped through Parliament by Farrer MP Sussan Ley ahead of her promotion to the health ministry.
Family Day Care Australia fears services will close and families will be left in the lurch by a new law that comes into effect on February 3.
It will stop family day care educators from using its services for their own children on the days they themselves provide care.
Ms Ley and Minister for Social Services Scott Morrison said the new law would stop “child-swapping”, a situation where educators care for each other’s children so both can claim payments.
Family Day Care Australia chief executive Carla Northam wants the Senate to overturn the law, saying the government did not consult the sector and dodged parliamentary scrutiny.
The legislation was tabled on the last parliamentary sitting day of 2014, while Ms Ley was still assistant minister for education, and will come into effect before Parliament resumes on February 9.
Greater Hume Children’s Services — which oversees family day care services from Urana, Towong, Albury-Wodonga and Indigo Shire — has more than 400 families on its books using family day care services.
Many come from towns like Henty and Culcairn where other day care isn’t readily available.
Greater Hume has identified about eight local educators directly affected by the legislative change, with possible flow-on effects to hundreds more.
“If this regulation goes ahead there is going to be a substantial decrease in the availability of family day care spaces in the community and increased cost to families,” a Family Day Care Australia spokeswoman said.
“The impact will be felt more so in rural and remote areas or those communities where family day care is the only form of approved early childhood education and care available, or alternative forms are limited.”
“I was distressed and anxious for a good week thinking 'what am I going to do?'”
- Mum Liz Villiers, pictured above with sons Elijah, 4, and Logan, 2.
Yesterday, Ms Ley’s office directed The Border Mail’s questions to Mr Morrison’s office.
They included whether or not there was public consultation; the timing of the changes; the potential extra burden on the childcare system; and the impact on regional families where there were fewer daycare options.
These questions were not answered; Mr Morrison instead provided a written comment that the new rule “brings family day care back to its original policy intent, to allow educators the opportunity to combine paid work with caring for their own children”.
At the time the legislation was introduced, Ms Ley said changes were necessary as the law had not kept up with the rapid growth in family daycare, allowing “unscrupulous operators to cash-in”.
About 90 per cent of suspensions, sanctions and fines issued since the government’s child care payment compliance taskforce had been introduced were against family day care, she said.
“We have specific examples of family day care services claiming millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded child care payments and yet up to a third of these services’ income comes directly from their educators swapping their own children,” she said.
But family day care educators said the change unfairly affected many who had been using services properly.
“There are certainly mechanisms within the current regulatory framework that address fraudulent activity surrounding sessions of care and the solution lies with sufficient enforcement activity,” the FDCA spokeswoman said.
A document supplied by Mr Morrison’s office states the government consulted with “peak bodies for the family day care sector” but FDCA denied this.
The government changes also include improving transparency of payment claims; power for the Commonwealth to enforce sanctions and approvals already imposed by the states; and stopping family daycare services operating in states and territories without approvals.