Millions missing under disability housing grant 26/02/2010
Millions missing under disability housing grant
By Wendy Carlisle for Four Corners
The money was meant to be spent immediately to satisfy the urgent needs of people with disabilities. (ABC) * Related Link: *Four Corners: Breaking Point < http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2010/s2817123.htm >
The New South Wales Government is scrambling to explain how it has spent $34 million allocated by the Commonwealth nearly two years ago for the construction of housing for people with disabilities. The money, part of a $100 million national plan, was meant to be spent immediately to satisfy the urgent needs of people with disabilities, many of whom live with ageing carers. After providing Four Corners with a list of housing it said was built with the funds.
The NSW Government has issued a revised progress report following revelations by the ABC program. Sent to Bill Shorten, the Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities,the revised list < http://www.abc.net.au/news/documents/scribd.htm?id=27480060 deletes seven places it claimed were built, and without explanation adds another 17 completed projects not previously identified.
In one case, housing said to be finished and accommodating people is now "under construction". A spokesman for NSW Disability Services Minister Paul Lynch admitted last week that some of the houses supposedly built had been "re-badged" as being funded by the Federal Government grant. Mr Lynch has not returned calls seeking clarification of the two lists
The Four Corners program _Breaking Point_ < http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2010/s2817123.htm revealed just 40 beds for people with disabilities had been provided nationwide under the $100 million fund announced by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in May 2008. In light of the revelations Mr Shorten asked the states and territories for an "immediate update" and an "assurance that the building of these places is on track".
Four Corners found five states had not completed one bed between them, including South Australia and Victoria, while NSW had apparently double-counted accommodation that had been built under previous state projects, some finished before Mr Rudd was elected < http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/15/2819276.htm > in 2007.
Disability organisations including House With No Steps, Kurrajong Waratah and the Sylvanvale Foundation, all deny their supported accommodation services had been funded by the Federal Government initiative. They said they had been funded under state initiatives, with some beds approved and funded before the Rudd Government came to power. Accommodation services previously listed as up and running in Taree, Kempsey, Tweed Heads and Warringah in Sydney appear not to have been built at all.
A spokesman for Mr Shorten said: "We do not know when the beds were tendered for, nor when they were approved, who the providers are, nor where they were." He could not rule out double-counting by NSW. "That is why Mr Shorten has asked for reconfirmation that the funding has increased the overall capacity of disability accommodation by the amount promised and has not been absorbed by previous state commitments."
Peter Cronau* Producer /Four Corners/ - ABC TV Australian Broadcasting Corporation GPO Box 9994, Sydney 2001, Australia tel: (+61) 02 8333 4617 fax: (+61) 02 8333 4755 www.abc.net.au/4corners
< http://www.abc.net.au/4corners >