Senate debates

Wednesday, 19 August 2009

Audits of General Purpose Accounts of Aged Care Providers

4:06 pm

Photo of Mathias CormannMathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health Administration) Share this | | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate:
(a)
notes that:
(i)
the Department of Health and Ageing has been collecting audited General Purpose Accounts from aged care providers since the 2004-05 financial year,
(ii)
this information has to be submitted by aged care providers as a condition of receiving Conditional Adjustment Payments (CAP),
(iii)
national de-identified comparative data from those accounts was expected to be made available every financial year to assist in performance benchmarking and in industry planning and investment decisions,
(iv)
only the 2004-05 data was made available to the aged care industry (Bentleys MRI report), and
(v)
subsequently, even though the information has been collected and analysed (in 2005-06 by Grant Thornton, in 2006-07 by Access Economics and KPMG) these reports, and any subsequent analysis, do not appear to have been made publicly available;
(b)
considers publication of the national de-identified data from the audited General Purpose Accounts to be in the public interest; and
(c)
orders that there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Ageing, by no later than 12 pm on 20 August 2009, the following documents:
National de-identified data from the audited General Purpose Accounts of aged care providers for:
●   2005-06, including report/analysis by Grant Thornton,
●   2006-07, including report/analysis by Access Economics and KPMG,
●   2007-08, including any report/analysis by the department and/or any third party consultant, and
●   2008-09, including any report/analysis by the department and/or any third party consultant.

Question agreed to.

4:05 pm

Photo of Kerry O'BrienKerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

by leave—The government will not seek to divide on the motion, although we opposed it, because the coalition and the Greens voting together gives the motion a majority.