Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

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

(1) (a) The Department has three staff working on the Indigenous Early Childhood Development National Partnership (IECD NP); a small proportion of this staff time is directed to the evaluation. No single staff member works exclusively on the IECD NP evaluation.

(b) Total cost of the evaluation is expected to be $1.2 million.

(c) The Department of Health and Ageing will contribute a total of $500,000 to the evaluation.

(2) (a) The Department works closely with other agencies and jurisdictions to ensure appropriate assessment and understanding of the program's delivery and progress.

(b) No additional financial contribution is expected to be made to the implementation of the IECD NP.

(c) The Department anticipates staff costs will be the only costs incurred for monitoring the implementation of the IECD NP.

(3) See answers 1 and 2 above. In addition, the Department works closely with other agencies to ensure policy alignment

(4) The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) receives some funding through purchase provider arrangements. The AIHW charges the Department for the collection and reporting of health and welfare related data. In the 2011-12 Budget, fee revenue from the Department was estimated to be $18.7m in 2011-12, with similar amounts anticipated over the forward estimate years. The revenues relate to AIHW's program 1.1 'Develop, collect, analyse and report high quality national health and welfare information and statistics for governments and the community'.