Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

Audit report No. 47 of 2005-06 relates to funding of communities and community organisations. The government is progressively casting off responsibility for providing social services to the non-government sector, and this document is a handy window into funding arrangements at the coalface.

The report outlines some of the difficulties that Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, FaCSIA, face in funding the third sector and third sector organisations that are supporting literally hundreds and thousands of people and thousands of different programs. It is difficult and unglamorous work but it needs to be done. If these groups are not funded, their work grinds to a halt. According to the ABS, in 1999-2000 not-for-profit institutions across the board accounted for $20.8 billion, or 3.3 per cent of total GDP. When the value of the work done by volunteers is included, the value of not-for-profit institutions to the economy increases to around $29.7 billion, or 4.7 per cent of GDP. The important point is that the contribution made by not-for-profit organisations is greater than that made by the communications, electricity, gas and water, and hospitality industries. Looking at part of the sector covered in the report, in 2004-05 FaCSIA funded 16,000 service providers with $1 billion worth of grants. Grants for disability support made up half of that amount but were not covered by the audit; they will be subject to future audits.

As I said in my adjournment speech last night, I believe that the third sector is invaluable in shouldering work in the community that other organisations do not do and supporting hundreds of thousands of people. I believe that this is extremely important and that they need support. The chief challenge for the government is to make sure that this work is funded properly, through a process that is streamlined, efficient and accountable, and that there is some feedback process in place to ensure that performance failures and successes are evaluated.

Debate interrupted.