Page 4724 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 10 November 2009
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of a care plan such as a childcare school holiday program and tutoring. The high-level subsidy payments may be made to support placements for children and young people with more complex needs. Also in 2009 the standard fostering kinship care subsidy for a 12 to 14-year-old is $199.25 per week and is $587.15 for the same age group person in specialised foster care. These subsidies are non-taxable and are increased annually in line with the consumer price index. In the past 10 years, from 1998 to 2008, subsidies have increased by 48.5 per cent.
MR SPEAKER: Mrs Dunne, a supplementary question?
MRS DUNNE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Minister, what actions will you be taking in your new role to address the concerns particularly of grandparents who are struggling, often on a pension and with very small remuneration, to raise their grandchildren?
MS BURCH: I intend to work closely with the stakeholders—that is, the parents, the grandparents and the children in this sector—with respect to these vulnerable children, the ones that are in the care of grandparents who may be struggling and experiencing financial hardships. I will work across the department and the NGO sector to do all that we can for them.
Hospitals–Calvary Public Hospital and Clare Holland House
MR HANSON: My question is to the Minister for Health, and is in relation to the Treasury analysis produced to justify the proposal to purchase Calvary hospital. The respected RMIT economics professor Sinclair Davidson asserts:
The ACT Treasury calculations do not support the purchase of Calvary Hospital—rather they support the status quo or base case.
In addition, Dr Terence Dwyer, who has a PhD in economics from Harvard University, has stated in relation to this analysis:
The accounting “analysis” has nothing to do with the real economic cost to the community—which is the cash cost.
Minister, what is the estimated cash cost of the purchase over the next 20 years, and where is this figure included in the Treasury analysis?
MS GALLAGHER: As the shadow minister will know, because he has had a briefing from Treasury and he has had access to the financial analysis from Treasury, the cash impact of the three scenarios, including the base case, the buy case and the build case, is outlined in the financial analysis that I am sure he has in front of him. The impact there, as you can see from chart 4, which shows the cash impact over a 20-year period, is roughly $374 million in cash flow terms for the base case; for the buy case it is $535 million, and that of course includes the purchasing and financing costs of buying the hospital. The difference of course is that we get an asset in return, and that is reflected in the balance sheet.
I think you rely heavily on these experts in your own financial analysis, if you can call it that, in your media release, and it seems to me that you are still struggling with the
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