Cancellation of Childcare Benefit Approval: Sunrising Family Day Care Pty Ltd and Secretary, Commonwealth Department of Education and Training

This was a case heard by the Australian Administrative Appeals Tribunal in which Sunrising Family Day Care Pty Ltd sought a review of the decision of the Department to cancel its child care benefit approval issued under section 195, A New Tax System (Family Allowance) (Administration) Act 1999. The Tribunal comprehensively reviewed the non-compliances by the provider under both the Administration Act and the National Law (as the NSW regulator had taken action against the service too), as well as the actions proposed by the provider to prevent these issues from reoccurring in the future. It, however, affirmed the decision of the Department, stating:

For the reasons stated above I have come to the conclusions that the Applicant is not a suitable person to operate a child care service; that the Applicant has committed numerous and repeated breaches of its statutory obligations; that as a result it should be subject to sanction and that because its proposed “new business model” is so seriously defective as to provide no basis for it to be allowed to continue operation, that sanction should be cancellation. (para.195)