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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-09-11 Daily Xml
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ERNABELLA EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTRE

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (14:40): My question is to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation. What was the $500,000 grant to the Ernabella Early Childhood Centre for, which account is the money in right now, and has the money been there since 28 June 2008?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Environment and Conservation, Minister for Early Childhood Development, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister Assisting the Premier in Cabinet Business and Public Sector Management) (14:41): The money was for probably about the worthiest cause you could imagine, that is, the early childhood development of Aboriginal people in one of the most deprived communities in our country, the APY lands, and in particular Ernabella, the largest of those communities. The details—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I think those opposite should return to their usual strategy, that is, read what is in the press and then try to make something of that. When they try to make up a story themselves it always falls horribly flat.

Ms CHAPMAN: I rise on a point of order. The minister should answer the question—get on with it or sit down.

The SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order. Minister.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I am going to answer this at length so that you can get all the details. The amount of money is $500,000, plus GST, so $550,000. Payment was made by cheque on 25 June 2008. It was paid from DPC administered items, APY lands (shown as 'APY lands—Additional services' in the DPC portfolio statements within the budget papers). Payment was within the approved budget of the APY lands budget line. The payment was approved by the Executive Director, Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, within her delegated authority. Financial authorisation for expenditure was made, once again, by the Executive Director, Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation (for 2007-08) for $550,000.

An authority for the approval of the grant payment was provided by the existing expenditure delegation, and the expenditure was in compliance with the requirements of Treasurer's Instruction 8, financial authorisations. Payment of the grant was made subsequent to the execution of a formal grant agreement between the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation (signed on behalf of the minister by Joslene Mazel, according to her delegation) and the Ernabella Aboriginal school (attached) on 13 June 2008.

The agreement is of a standard type for a grant of this nature. The agreement provides for the grant recipient to provide full financial reporting to the government on the use of the grant, including the provision of audited financial statements (page 17 of the grant agreement). Accordingly, the provision of the grant was in accordance with the requirement of Treasurer's Instruction (TI) 15, grant funding. A copy of TI15 is available, if you would like to look at that.

The expenditure amount covering the grant was within the budgeted total expenditure of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, with a cash alignment policy as an administrative mechanism (not a Treasurer's Instruction) which provides for the return of all agency surplus cash to Consolidated Account subsequent to the end of each financial year. The payment of the grant did not result in any breach of the cash alignment policy. So, at every level the suggestion that there is something wrong here is without merit—at every single level. Once again—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: That is right. And where is it being spent? It is being spent on the Ernabella school in the APY lands. And remember this was a part of South Australia that the previous government would not permit us to even visit through the Aboriginal Lands Standing Committee. It was a part of the state they were happy to excise because they did not want any attention on the complete lack of regard that was occurring to that part of South Australia.

Indeed, the mechanism that we are talking about here has been one of the central reasons for the success of our intervention in relation to the APY lands—that is, having the Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation Division located within the Premier's department and, more importantly, having the money that was allocated to be spent in those areas centrally administered so that it could be accounted for on a detailed basis by the Department of the Premier and Cabinet.

This has been one of the great difficulties with investments in remote regions and, in particular, Aboriginal communities. Notionally, there is a budget to spend there but, because of the difficulty of service delivery, it just simply is not spent and it gets dragged back into the city. That has been history since we decided to change the policy of investment in remote communities. Not only was every 'i' dotted and every 't' crossed in relation to financial accountability, it highlights the special measures we have put in place to ensure that dollars do get on the ground in remote regions in South Australia.

Dr McFETRIDGE: Mr Speaker, I understand that the minister is reading from a docket. Can I ask that that docket be tabled?

The SPEAKER: There is a difference between dockets and whatever briefing notes the minister is reading from. If it is a government docket, he must table it.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I can clarify, sir, that I have some notes but I also have a funding agreement dated 13 June 2008 which I would be more than happy to table.

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