Tracey Roberts (Pearce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. What were the findings of the Australian National Audit Office report into the administration of the Community Health and Hospitals Program? How is the Albanese Labor government acting on the recommendations of the Audit Office?

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Pearce for her question. She's right. Last week the Australian National Audit Office report into the Morrison government's community health and hospitals fund was tabled in this parliament. It's the latest in a long line of scandals around programs run by the former government that breached the most basic principles of public administration.

This program allocated $2 billion of taxpayer funds to more than 170 projects. Mostly, there was no process seeking expressions of interest or making a formal assessment of the suitability of those projects. Indeed, the Audit Office found that 'the department was forced to monitor the media to know which projects had been selected'. Of the 63 major projects funded, the Audit Office found that only two were rated as highly suitable—only two out of 63. The Audit Office found that the administration of more than 100 grants under the program was 'not appropriate and involved deliberate breaches of the relevant legal instruments'.

One of those grants was to the now infamous Esther Foundation in Western Australia—a foundation that former Prime Minister Morrison gushed had 'completely, completely captured' his heart, but which has been the subject of complaints of psychological and emotional abuse, among other things, to WA health authorities dating back to 2018.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Barker will cease interjecting across the chamber.

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This grant was ultimately approved without a financial viability assessment, audited financial statements or even legal authority in place to make the grant in the first place. That wasn't the only grant that this foundation received in the lead up to the 2019 election, of course. They also received $630,000 for security, signed off under the now Leader of the Opposition's Safer Communities Fund, which, of course, was the subject of a separate but equally scathing Audit Office report.

We know on this side, now more than ever, every single dollar spent in health is precious. I'm glad that my department has accepted each and every one of the Audit Office recommendations. I've directed them to examine, line by line, each of the remaining projects under this program which have not yet been fully acquitted, but the stain from this long line of funding scandals—this, car park rorts, sport rorts and so many others—won't be washed so easily from the Liberal and National parties.