Child Care News
Slapstick tactics fed $1 billion childcare fraud
The Australian - Rick Morton - October 8, 2016The Australian revealed this week the case of Ruben Majok Aleer Aguer, who received $1.6 million in taxpayer money to run a network of family childcare educators looking after up to 74 children. In a farcical game of cat and mouse that lasted 16 months, Mr Aguer led the monitoring authority, the...
Experts warn drilling reading and writing skills pre-Kindergarten might not be a good idea
The Daily Telegraph - Neil Keene - October 8, 2016While up to one in five of the 70,000-plus NSW children starting school next year will have developmental vulnerabilities, early childhood experts said that "hot-housing" young children to fast-track academic achievement was not the answer. Peak advocacy group Early Childhood Australia said many...
Preps repeating first school year in Victoria, concerns they're starting too early
Herald Sun - Elissa Doherty - October 7, 2016HUNDREDS of preps are repeating the first year of school amid concerns parents are starting children too early or can't get them in to kinder. Some preps lack even basic communication skills and are unprepared for learning, with kindergarten shortages and the high cost of childcare exacerbating the...
Childcare employees' pay too low to be able to start family, union says
The Guardian - Melissa Davey - October 7, 2016Many childcare employees are on such low pay that they can not start a family, travel, or successfully apply for a mortgage, according to a submission to the Fair Work Commission from United Voice, a union representing the childcare sector. United Voice has called for a 35% pay...
Brothers still operating network, despite suspension after raids
The Australian - Rick Morton - October 7, 2016Sydney brothers Mohammad and Ibrahim Omar, whose childcare empire has been suspended amid a police investigation into whether Islamic State was funded with taxpayer money, are still operating a network of training organisations around Australia. The Australian can reveal that the brothers...
Childcare workers too poor to start families of their own
The Daily Telegraph - Natasha Bita - October 7, 2016CHILDCARE workers are demanding a 35 per cent pay rise because they are too poor to take holidays, buy homes or even have children of their own. The United Voice union told the Fair Work Commission yesterday that Australia's 80,000 childcare workers needed their pay topped up by one...
VET rorts 'fed bogus childcare boom'
The Australian - Rick Morton - October 6, 2016The rush to get training certificates for the family daycare sector, which has been seriously rorted by more than $1 billion, was fuelled by the $6bn fraud of the vocational education sector in a symbiotic raid on government funds. In some cases, applicants for Certificate IIIs in early childhood education...
Family daycare system needs coherent regulation, technology
The Australian - Judith Sloan - October 6, 2016John Howard said he was going to fix it. Sussan Ley, when assistant minister for education, said she was going to fix it. Now Simon Birmingham, the current Minister for Education and Training, says he'll fix it. The rorts in family daycare have been going on for years. It's such a beautiful business...
$1.6m handed to daycare business operator without proof of kids
The Australian - Rick Morton - October 5, 2016In the 16 months Ruben Majok Aleer Aguer ran a family daycare business from his Canberra home, he received $1.6 million in federal government money, even though multiple officials sent to do compliance checks never spotted a child confirmed to be in care. Mr Aguer, a church youth minister...
Ministers urge closure of daycare loophole
The Australian - Rick Morton - October 5, 2016The Turnbull government should overhaul legislation governing family daycare centres to deal with an omission that allows for a person to operate a taxpayer- funded service and not actually care for any children, according to state ministers. In several states, inspectors visited homes listed as...
Call for inquiry into Family Day Care rort
9News.com.au - October 4, 2016The Victorian government says the Commonwealth should cease funding new Family Day Care services in areas where there are sufficient providers following reports of systematic rorting of the subsidy system. The state Labor government on Tuesday called for an independent review into federal...
Corruption in daycare costs taxpayers $1bn
The Australian - Rick Morton - October 4, 2016Corrupt family daycare providers have defrauded taxpayers of more than $1 billion in just two years through systemic rorting that Education Minister Simon Birmingham has compared with Labor's failed home insulation and school halls stimulus schemes. Leaked documents obtained by The...
Childcare revamp 'costs the poor, benefits well-off'
The Australian - Rick Morton - October 4, 2016A simpler and more generous childcare package would result in many being families out-of- pocket to the tune of hundreds of dollars if cuts to Family Tax Benefits go ahead, new modelling shows. The federal government has linked funding for its $3.5 billion childcare package to savings obtained from the...
Early learning scheme fails, 300 more centres on brink
The Australian - Stephen Fitzpatrick - October 4, 2016A $300 million experiment establishing a network of 38 indigenous family and childcare facilities has failed, with advocates claiming changes to funding the sector will drive the centres out of operation. A "Jobs for Families Childcare Package" bill to extend federal funding arrangements described...
'No jab, no pay' disadvantages migrant children
The Conversation - Simon Hendel - October 3, 2016The Commonwealth government's "no jab, no pay" legislation is disadvantaging migrant children, say immunisation experts from Melbourne. The paper, published today in the Medical Journal of Australia, warns many families are having essential payments withheld despite their children being...
