Bills Digest No. 45 1997-98
Child Care Payments (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions)
Bill 1997
WARNING:
This Digest was prepared for debate. It reflects the legislation as introduced
and does not canvass subsequent amendments. This Digest does not have any
official legal status. Other sources should be consulted to determine the
subsequent official status of the Bill.
CONTENTS
Child Care Payments (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions)
Bill 1997
Date Introduced: 28 August 1997
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Health and Family Services
Commencement: The transitional arrangements commence when the Child
Care Payments Act 1997 commences. For details of the commencement
of the consequential amendments, see the following Main Provisions - Consequential
Amendments section of this Digest.
To repeal the Child Care Rebate Act 1993 and amend other Acts
necessary to implement the new child care arrangements proposed by the
Child Care Payments Bill 1997.To provide transitional arrangements between
existing child care payments and the new scheme.
The Child Care Payments Bill 1997 was introduced in the House of Representatives
on 26 June 1997.It provides for a system of approved child care services
and simplifies the paperwork associated with child care by using the Commonwealth
Services Delivery Agency to process all applications and payments.It also
increases the threshold for the assets test, introduces a cap of 20 hours
for parents who are not working, training or studying, and seeks to limit
the number of new places so as to distribute child care facilities where
they are most needed.
For a comprehensive analysis of the Child Care Payments Bill 1997 the
reader is referred to Bills Digest No. 21, 1997-98.
Transitional Arrangements
The effect of clause 5 is to continue operation of the current
child care subsidies until the 'payment commencement day' which is a day
to be fixed by Proclamation under clause 12 of the Child Care Payments
Bill 1997.Subclause 5(2) allows people a period of 21 weeks after
the 'payment commencement day' to lodge claims for child care already
provided.
Clause 6 enables the Secretary to make determinations regarding
existing child care services or centres about whether they are approved
under the Child Care Payments Act 1997.These determinations operate
for a period of up to 12 months from the 'payment commencement date' (Subclause
6(6)).
Clause 7 enables the Secretary to make determinations regarding
the existing registration of carers about whether they are registered
under the Child Care Payments Act 1997.Such determinations can
only be made for a period of up to six months after the 'payment commencement
day'.
Clause 8 provides exemption, subject to the Secretary's approval,
from the new planning controls for a child care operator who had already
taken action to build or extend a long day care centre before the limits
on location were announced in the 1997 Budget (13 May 1997).To be eligible
for this exemption, operators would need to have completed the building
or extension by 30 September 1998.
Clause 9 provides exemption from the new, lower rate of Child
Care Assistance for children who are attending school and already using
a long day care centre or family day care service for outside school hours
care.The new rate will have a ceiling of $1.95 per hour.School age children
already in centres and family day care will retain their current entitlements
of up to the current ceiling of $2.30 per hour (or $3.05 per hour for
non-standard family day care hours) while they continue to use the same
service(1).
Clause 10 provides arrangements for children who are receiving
special child care assistance immediately before the 'payment commencement
day' to continue to receive additional assistance, subject to the Secretary's
approval, for the first 4 weeks of the new scheme.
Clause 12 enables regulations to be made to manage other transitional
arrangements from the current child care payments scheme to the new scheme.
Consequential Amendments
All the consequential amendments to other legislation are included in
Schedule 1.
Item 8 repeals the Childcare Rebate Act 1993.
Items 1-4 amend the Child Care Act 1972 by removing a
number of definitions which had been added to it by the 1993 legislation
which is now repealed.Item 7 repeals references to fee relief in
the Child Care Act 1972.From 1 January 1998 Child Care Assistance
and Child Care Cash Rebate will be paid as a parent entitlement, rather
than as a grant to services.Payment will be administered by the new Commonwealth
Service Rebate Agency under the Child Care Payments Act 1997(2).
Items 1-8 of Schedule 1 are to commence on the day that
is the 'payment commencement day' for the purposes of the Child Care
Payments Act 1997.
Items 9 and 10 amend the Data-matching Program (Assistance
and Tax) Act 1990 to ensure that the new child care fee subsidies
are included in the definition of 'personal assistance' for the purposes
of data matching.These items will commence on the 'payment commencement
day' unless the subparagraphs 3(1)(c) (xxivd) and (xxive), which refer
to Child Care Assistance and fee relief under the old scheme, have been
repealed earlier by another Act.
Item 17 amends paragraph 16(4)(fa) of the Income Tax Assessment
Act 1936 to reflect the transfer of administrative responsibility
for the registration of child care rebate services from the Health Insurance
Commission to the Department of Health and Family Services.This subsection
of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 provides for certain persons
being authorised to receive information from the Commissioner of Taxation
for certain specific purposes.
Items 18-21 provide that Child Care Assistance and the Child
Care Rebate are exempt from income tax.The effect of Item 18 is
to ensure that neither of these payments is included in the calculations
of a taxpayer's dependant's 'separate net income' for the purposes of
certain tax rebates.
Items 17-21 commence on the commencement of the Child Care
Payments Act 1997.
Items 22-43 amend the Social Security Act 1991.The
effect of Items 23, 24, 28-40, 42 and 43 is to amend various subsections
of the Social Security Act 1991 in order to include decisions about
child care payments in the appeal mechanisms of the Social Security Appeals
Tribunal (SSAT).Access to the review and appeal mechanisms of the SSAT
is introduced by Chapter 9 of the Child Care Payments Bill 1997.Under
the previous legislation, decisions were reviewed by the Health Insurance
Commission.
Items 26 and 27 allow overpayments of child care subsidies to
be recovered from other payments made under the Social Security Act
1991.The effect of Item 41 is to require confidentiality of
information obtained in connection with payments under the Child Care
Payments Act 1997.
Amendments to the Social Security Act 1991 (Items 22-43)
commence on the commencement of the Child Care Payments Act 1997.
- National Childcare Information Strategy, Information Kit, 29
August 1997.
- Department of Health and Family Services, Commonwealth Children's
Services Program: report on public consultations on future directions
1996-97, May 1997: 12.
Rosemary Bell
19 September 1997
Bills Digest Service
Information and Research Services
This Digest does not have any official legal status. Other sources should
be consulted to determine whether the Bill has been enacted and, if so,
whether the subsequent Act reflects further amendments.
IRS staff are available to discuss the paper's contents with Senators
and Members and their staff but not with members of the public.
ISSN 1328-8091
© Commonwealth of Australia 1997
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Published by the Department of the Parliamentary Library, 1997.
This page was prepared by the Parliamentary Library, Commonwealth of
Australia
Last updated: 22 September 1997
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