Communities and Social Inclusion Department

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:51): I have a question to the Minister for Social Inclusion. Can the minister tell the parliament what it's done to remedy the situation of making payments to dead people, including $2.81 million as disclosed on page 21 of the Auditor-General's Report?

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) (14:52): I thank the member for her interest. When someone has an energy concession and that's in their name—an energy bill—and they pass on, we have a 13-week grace period because, often, when you have two people in a house, we find that the bill is only in one person's name. So, on the death of that person, we do have a grace period when people then change that bill into their name. What has been apparent here is that grace period has often gone on longer but, with our new concentration and the semiautomated system, obviously, we will be paying closer attention.