Call me a hypocrite........ bureaucracy gone mad

We have recently found ourselves in the unfortunate position of having to put our two girls in childcare, so we have begun the process of being properly registered for approved care, thus entitling us to claim half the cost of childcare as a tax rebate (I may be a libertarian, but I am not stupid - well, not that stupid).

It has been a labyrinthine undertaking, not least the 22 pages of application form we filled in two days ago. To hand it in, I waited 20 minutes in the Family Assistance Office, only to be told that I need to bring in the original birth certificates for both girls (I can't fax them - the originals need to be sighted). "It won't happen overnight but it will happen", as they say.

I went away wondering whether this is just bureaucratic inefficiency or a deliberate strategy to cut costs......