Azaria Family Day Care Pty Ltd and Secretary, Department of Education

This matter concerned a review of a decision by an authorised review officer of the Secretary, Department of Education, to affirm an earlier decision to cancel Azaria Family Day Care Pty Ltd's approval as a provider of childcare services. The cancellation was made pursuant to section 195H(1)(b) of the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999 (Administration Act). The applicant had been approved as a childcare operator in 2010 and subsequently as a childcare service provider for the purposes of the family assistance law.

The legal issues before the Tribunal were whether the applicant had contravened various conditions of its continued approval under the Administration Act, specifically concerning its obligations to provide accurate reports, pass on fee reductions, and remit amounts not able to be passed on. The Tribunal was also required to determine if these contraventions constituted a significant failure of governance, rendering the applicant unsuitable to operate a childcare service and thus non-compliant with relevant rules, and whether the applicant ceased to be a "fit and proper person" to operate such a service.

The review officer affirmed the cancellation, finding that the applicant had failed to comply with sections 219N, 219B, and 219EA of the Pre-Amendment Administration Act. This included reporting care sessions that did not occur, reporting care for ineligible children without proper documentation, failing to pass on fee reductions, and failing to remit amounts not passed on. The review officer concluded that these failures demonstrated a significant governance issue, meaning the applicant was no longer a suitable or fit and proper person to operate a childcare service, leading to non-compliance with the Child Care Benefit (Eligibility of Child Care Services for Approval and Continued Approval) Rules 2017 and sections 194C, 194D, and 194E of the Administration Act. The review officer considered information provided by the applicant, its reports, and data from Centrelink and the Department of Home Affairs.