Get your house in order Labor, NDIS and child care fraudsters must be stopped

We know the NDIS is rife with fraud, the taxpayer is losing at least a billion dollars a year there. Now child care has similar issues. Something must change, writes Julie Cross.

If there’s one thing I learnt from the budget this week is that fraudsters, rorters and scammers are doing alright, thank you very much.

My eyes watered at the amount of money being spent on trying to catch people abusing Government systems.

We know the NDIS is rife with fraud, the taxpayer is losing at least a billion dollars a year there.

Bill Shorten’s message from the budget was the same as last year and the year before.

It’s about getting the NDIS “back on track”, he said. And that means spending an extra $268m on preventing fraud, on top of hundreds of millions last year.

But it’s not just the NDIS.

Now we hear there’s a problem with the Child Care Subsidy scheme.

Apparently, more than $100m is being rorted through the subsidy program every year - and so the Government will spend $25m a year for the next four years on stamping that out. Or trying.

They will target dodgy providers and “individuals of high, unexplained wealth” connected to the sector.

So, while some parents are deciding they can’t afford to go back to work, because the childcare fees are so expensive, others are getting rich from rorting the scheme.

There’s something very wrong with that.

Meanwhile, another $187 million is being given to the tax office to help prevent fraud against tax and superannuation systems This follows the $2 billion TikTok GST fraud scheme which came to light last year.

That scam was so lucrative, even the tax office’s own staff were getting in on the act. More than 150 employees were investigated and some are being prosecuted.

It only came to light when banks started noticing welfare recipients getting unusually large payments.

The auditor-general found the tax office’s own systems to catch GST fraud were “not fit for purpose”.

I’m not against money being spent to stop fraudsters. Please catch them, lock them up and make them pay it all back.

But also get your house in order, because it is evident some people are doing very well out of the Government, when all I got this year was a $300 rebate.

Originally published as Get your house in order Labor, NDIS and child care fraudsters must be stopped