Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The Minister for Health and Ageing has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

(1) (a) During 201-11, the Department entered into a total of 525 new consultancy contracts with a total value of $50,871,382.31.

(b) The Department entered into a total of 451 and 429 consultancy contracts during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 financial years respectively. Details of individual contracts and their values can be found in Section 4.3 of the Department of Health and Ageing Annual reports for the relevant financial years. These reports can be accessed at the following link: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/Annual+Reports-3

(c) The Department’s staff numbers are recorded as part of the Annual Report process for each financial year. Staff numbers for respective financial years are displayed below.

Staff numbers include:

(2) (a) The Department has entered into nine (9) arrangements with ANF to the total value of $1,032,430.59 since 1 November 2007. These figures are according to the Department’s contract reporting system as at 25 August 2011.

(b) A breakdown of these nine contracts can be found at Attachment A.

(c) In the 2010-11 Budget, the Government announced that it would fund a body of research into the staffing inputs that are adequate to provide good quality care, supervision and support for particular resident profiles. The Department received a submission from the ANF which met the requirements of this research project and delivered value for money. A grant was then provided in accordance with the Commonwealth Grant Guidelines.

(d) Due to an administrative error, details of the grant provided to conduct a research study on staffing levels, skills mix and residential care needs were initially posted on the AusTender site on 14 July 2011, as opposed to the grants reporting webpage of the Department’s internet site. Details of the grant were removed from AusTender and published on the Department’s grants reporting webpage on 15 August 2011.

ATTACHMENT A