House of Representatives

Explanatory Memorandum

(Circulated by the authority of the Minister for Education and Training, Senator the Hon Simon Birmingham)

Schedule 3 - Other amendments

Part 1 - Amendments commencing day after Royal Assent

Items 1 and 2 amend section 4 of the Family Assistance Act by specifying that, despite subsection 14(2) of the Legislation Act 2003, a determination made for subsection (1) may make provision in relation to a matter by applying, adopting or incorporating any matter contained in an instrument or other writing as in force or existing from time to time. The departure from the general position reflected in section 14 of the Legislation Act 2003 is intended to ensure that future versions of the instruments that set out vaccination and immunisation details and schedules (including the Australian Immunisation Handbook) can continue to be meaningfully referred to. The Australian Immunisation Handbook is approved by the National Health and Medical Research Council to provide clinical advice on vaccination. As the Handbook is updated regularly to take account of scientific evidence as it becomes available (and is currently in its 10th edition of publication) it is important to ensure that any reference in a legislative instrument made under section 4 is a reference to the current and up to date edition. The Handbook is publicly, readily and freely available to access from the National Health and Medical Research Council website, through the Australian Government Department of Health, for those seeking to access the content of the law. It is understood that updates to the Handbook are also regularly notified on the National Health and Medical Research Council's homepage.

Items 3, 4, 5 and 6 introduce amendments to section 194 and section 199 of the Family Assistance Administration Act that allow the Minister to, firstly, prescribe circumstances in which applications (made commencement day from Royal Assent) for approval of a child care service are taken to not have been made. This rule making power could be used to limit applications to address excessive growth within a particular child care service type, specifically where there are concerns about proven or alleged non - compliance with family assistance law. It could also be exercised to establish a short "moratorium" on new applications in the lead up to transition to the new CCS regime. The second amendment to section 199 allows the Secretary to reassess whether a child care service continues to meet the conditions of continued approval. Where a service has been identified as no longer meeting their conditions of continued approval, the service's approval may be cancelled. This provision ensures that sanction action in relation to non - compliant existing services can occur in the lead up to the new CCS system. This provision also aligns with the ability of the Secretary, following the commencement of Schedule 1 of this Bill, to review the approval of approved providers.

Items 7 and 8 simplify a provision in the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 that deals with the GST treatment of child care that is funded by the Commonwealth. The provision allows the Minister to determine certain kinds of child care for this purpose to enable new child care funding programmes to be treated in a consistent way for GST purposes.

Part 2 - Amendments commencing 1 July 2017

Items 9 and 10 shorten the period in which CCB service approvals are able to be backdated from the date of application. A change is made from 6 to 3 months. This provision is transitional in nature and is designed to ensure that lengthy backdated approvals are not possible in the lead up to the new CCS system.

Items 11 to 20 make amendments related to the cessation of enrolment advances. These amendments ensure that no new enrolment advances are payable in relation to enrolments that post - date 1 July 2017. The amendment will also ensure that, from 1 July 2017, enrolment advances can begin to be recovered where they were paid in relation to enrolments that occurred more than four years ago.