"These family day care services were designed to support parents who wanted to care for their own children, in their own home while earning a small income — it was not envisaged that this opportunity would ultimately rip almost $8 million a week off of Australian parents and taxpayers," Education Minister Simon Birmingham told News Corp Australia.
The outlet said 11,000 parents pocketed the US$5.9 million every week by "swapping" over 31,000 children. Since the new laws came into effect, the weekly losses amounted to US$386,000.
"We want to ensure every taxpayer dollar spent on child care supports families to balance their work obligations or children to access early learning, rather than being rorted by those more interested in lining their own pockets," Birmingham said.
Each of Australia’s six states has been implicated in the FDC scam, with abuse most prevalent in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.
