Communities and Social Inclusion Department

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (14:48): My question is to the Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion. Does the minister accept full accountability and responsibility for the $7.4 million on the failed CASIS program, the $11.8 million DCSI did not approve for energy concessions, the $5 million for insufficient validation for eligibility for Centrelink clients, DCSI having no records of clients who were paid $2.8 million, the $1.8 million that was paid to clients that didn't have any concession application lodged with DCSI, the $1.3 million where the clients were not eligible under the Centrelink data, the $0.9 million DCSI did not have any records of, and the 4,000 clients who were paid concessions who were dead?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers) (14:49): I thank the member for Morphett for his interest in this area. We have discussed this in the past when the Auditor-General has raised concerns about this issue. The key focus here is this is a validation issue—that means that people weren't sufficiently validated before payment—and what we find is that the very vast majority of people were eligible for these energy concessions.

When the Auditor-General has worked with us about these systemic issues, I have taken it on board at every point, and we continue to work with him to improve our reconciliation and our validation process. We have increased the amount of people on the energy concessions and have a semiautomated system. The role of the Auditor-General is incredibly important in our system. I welcome his report—

Dr McFetridge: 4,350 were dead.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: —and I will continue to work—

The SPEAKER: The member for Morphett is on two warnings.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: —I will continue to work with him. As you have known, I have made announcements before about COLIN, our new database system that will fully automate the validation. Initially, we are going to start COLIN looking at the cost-of-living concession, with the intent to build on it for all the other concessions.

Mr Knoll interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned a second and a last time.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Administration of concessions is complex. As you will see in the report, we have pensioners who continue to be concession holders, but we also have beneficiaries that come in and out of this system. We will continue to work on our reconciliation of the validation, but the key thing here is the vast majority of people were eligible—

Mr Knoll interjecting:

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: —and it's about making that eligibility—

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is on two warnings.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I welcome the Auditor-General's Report. We will continue to work to improve our validation reconciliation.