5AA Leon Byner
E&OE
LEON BYNER:
Scott, thank you for joining us. What has your Government decided on this?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well that operator, Farah 4 Kidz, whose allegedly been involved in these practices has been suspended, both in South Australia as part of a joint action with the South Australian Government and the Federal Government. That means they cannot receive any subsidies or payments and there are further processes that are following. They also no longer have their registration in South Australia. They also operate, so they have around 100, over 100 operations in South Australia, 24 in Victoria, 32 in Queensland, 29 in New South Wales. So they have basically been suspended and in the next few weeks I’ll be introducing a new regulation that will crack down on these children swapping practices within the sector.
BYNER:
Alright, so what is that going to mean for people listening today who rely on this childcare?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well it should mean nothing for the vast majority because what this is doing is cracking down on rorting. The only people who should be worried about this arrangement are those who are rorting the system, because we will have exemptions. Earlier in the year we looked to introduce this regulation and there was, particularly in South Australia, there was some concern about that. We’ve had a lot of consultation so there will be exemptions for children with special needs, for those where there is work and education and study being undertaken by providers themselves as well as people in remote areas and these were the areas where there was a necessity for exemptions. But otherwise we will introduce that tougher new regulation; I can’t guarantee that all the Family Day Care sector will like it, because for some there does appear to be a bit of a tolerance for this sort of behaviour. We don’t have any tolerance for it and that why…
BYNER:
Just explain the behaviour we are talking about, so people understand exactly where you’re coming from.
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well put it this way, you and I both have kids, let’s say, and I decide to run an operation where I look after your kids during the day and you look after mine. If we are looking after our own kids we’d be paying our own bills, under that arrangement we become service providers and we both take advantage of subsidies from the Government. That’s just not on. That’s a complete and utter rort and taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for it. This one rort which we’ve shut down in this operation that’s around about $13 million a year…
BYNER:
$13 million.
MINISTER MORRISON:
So that’s been shut down. But last time I remember when I was on your programme when I was in Adelaide, we talked about $80-$90 million a year in rorts we’ve been able to shut down.
BYNER:
Yes.
MINISTER MORRISON:
Now this is important, you’ve got to have a tough welfare cop on the beat and that’s what we are so we can ensure that the money we do spend on payments, subsidies and things go to the people who most need them.
BYNER:
Can I just clarify something, what is the role of the State Government in the administration or the audit of these childcare centres?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well they’re the regulator; they’re the ones who maintain standards. Frankly in South Australia, the South Australian Government has been slow off the mark in terms of accrediting centres. This is well – these provisions we are talking about today relate to Family Day Care centres but of all centres South Australia is lagging behind the rest of the country in getting out there and doing the job under the National Quality Framework to accredit centres, so they are a long way behind and they really need to…
BYNER:
Do we know why? Have you got a reason?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Bureaucratic inefficiencies and there the sorts of issues that have been raised with me and not enough resources from the State Government going into those sorts of things. We’re getting pretty used to the South Australian Government making excuses for quite a number of things.
BYNER:
Alright, Scott Morrison thank you for joining us.