Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is also to the Minister representing the Assistant Minister for Education, Senator Payne. Can the minister confirm reports that the budget for childcare payments supporting low-income earners blew out by almost $30 million due to rorting?

Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I again thank Senator Ruston for her extremely important question, because the damage done to this program is very concerning. I can confirm for the senator reports that the Commonwealth Jobs, Education and Training Child Care Fee Assistance Program has been subject to very significant exploitation in recent years by what is a small but, unfortunately, expanding network of family day-care services and in some cases parents who are engaging in what is known in the business as sharp practices.

Those sorts of practices have included services which have charged excessive fees; a number have been found to have been charging fees upwards of $20 to $30 an hour; services claiming for hours of care which were actually not delivered—that is, a number of family day-care services charging the JET parents in this case for 12-hour blocks of care per day despite the child only being in care for a few hours; parents actually claiming more child care than they need to complete their own study or training commitments; some JET parents who are placing their children in care over 50 hours a week, which is of course fully subsidised by taxpayers except for the 50c per hour per child co-contribution, even in cases where their courses only required a 10- or 20-hour per week study commitment; and parents who have continued to claim the same sort of assistance, despite no longer participating in or having actually completed their study or training.

As a result of those practices, government spending on the program blew out by around $28 million under the previous government in 2012-13 and again the year after that, despite the number of families and children accessing the program actually declining over the same period. The expectation was that the program would blow out a further $240 million over the next four years to 2017-18 without the government taking some action.

I think much of the blow-out has been driven by the ability of services and parents to make claims which are completely uncapped. (Time expired)

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question: could the minister also advise what measures the government is taking to ensure taxpayers' money is going to those who need it most?

Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Ruston for the supplementary. What we are doing is what any sensible and prudent government would do and that is to increase our active compliance of the JET program, which is part of our broader approach to stronger childcare compliance and stronger program guidelines, because the slipping standards and the lack of action under Labor is what actually caused this problem.

The program is designed to provide child care for parents on income support who are studying or training so they can get a job. It is very important to greater workforce participation, so our increased active compliance checks and monitoring are going to be bolstered by the budget measure for this particular assistance, which is limiting JET claims to 36 hours per week for study activities; introducing a maximum limit of $8 per child per hour childcare claimed under the JET program once the CCB is factored in, which is about a total of $13 per hour per child; and funding stronger proactive compliance activity— (Time expired)

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question: is the minister aware of how long this problem has existed?

Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is a very good question. As I mentioned earlier, these sharp practices by a small group of family day-care services and a small group of parents have been occurring for some time now. As I said, the blow-out in 2012-13 was $28 million on this program—that is not an insignificant amount of money in a program of this nature.

The former government were well aware of this issue and they did nothing about it. But that is not surprising: that sort of complete disregard for the appropriate use of taxpayer dollars is typical. As I was saying earlier, this is a program that cannot afford to be abused by dodgy services who want to make an easy buck. It cannot afford to be abused by parents who use more care than they need to to complete their study requirements just because the taxpayers are paying. That is not on. It is for people who, as I described, are on income support looking for a job and for genuine people— (Time expired)