❓ Mr. Cook questions the Minister for Health regarding lack of action against staff who failed to report gifts and travel, referencing a previous commitment to address the issue. The Minister defends his housing allowance and details actions taken to address reporting compliance within the Department.
AnsweredQoN 230Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH STAFF — GIFTS AND
TRAVEL
230. Mr R.H. COOK to the Minister for Health:
I refer to recent revelations that there has been no action
taken against Department of Health staff who failed to comply with the
mandatory reporting of gifts and travel and the following assertion the Premier
made in June last year —
I am quite confident that the
minister and the Director General of the Department of Health will tidy this up
(1) Why has no
action been taken against staff who breached these mandatory policies?
(2) What
processes have been put in place since the release of the Auditor General's
report highlighting these issues to ensure that all current and future gifts
and travel is reported?
(3) As these
issues have been known since May 2011 and were further highlighted in June 2012,
how has it been ''tidied up''?
(4) Does the
minister agree that he is setting a bad example for people accepting gifts by
his acceptance of the country members' housing allowance when he lives
in the middle of the city, as revealed by the member for Mandurah yesterday?
TRAVEL
230. Mr R.H. COOK to the Minister for Health:
I refer to recent revelations that there has been no action
taken against Department of Health staff who failed to comply with the
mandatory reporting of gifts and travel and the following assertion the Premier
made in June last year —
I am quite confident that the
minister and the Director General of the Department of Health will tidy this up
(1) Why has no
action been taken against staff who breached these mandatory policies?
(2) What
processes have been put in place since the release of the Auditor General's
report highlighting these issues to ensure that all current and future gifts
and travel is reported?
(3) As these
issues have been known since May 2011 and were further highlighted in June 2012,
how has it been ''tidied up''?
(4) Does the
minister agree that he is setting a bad example for people accepting gifts by
his acceptance of the country members' housing allowance when he lives
in the middle of the city, as revealed by the member for Mandurah yesterday?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(4)
I will deal with the last issue first because that has been something of a
vexatious issue. Everyone who lives outside the metropolitan area is entitled
to make a claim when they need, for reasons of being a member of this house, to
claim an allowance. In effect, it covers the fact that you need two houses and
two mortgages. When in opposition, I moved to the south west, down to Mandurah.
I lived there; I virtually bached for four years because I had a daughter and a
disabled son in Perth that my wife needed to stay with. I stayed down there for
four years. When I became minister, it was not possible, particularly when
ministers have so much on, to drive back to Mandurah and then drive back here
in the morning for issues. I claim the nights I am entitled to claim; that is,
the nights on which it would really be extraordinarily difficult for me to get
down there and get back here for work the next day. That is a limited number of
occasions.
Mr R.H. Cook :
Where is your principal address?
Dr
K.D. HAMES : My address is in Mandurah. We have a house in Perth where my
wife and one of my children reside, so I stay there. It is perfectly
legitimate. Members on your side have done exactly the same for very many
years.
Mr
R.H. Cook : Who has?
Dr
K.D. HAMES : I only claim for those nights that the law entitles me, and
that is clearly transparent; members opposite can check that at any time.
Members opposite can do that; those are the rules.
Mrs
M.H. Roberts interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Sit down, please, minister. Member for Midland, I call you to
order for the first time.
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Minister for Health, I call you to order for the first time. Do
not talk when I am on my feet, please.
Dr K.D. HAMES : To
get back to the real issue here, it is the health of this state and what are we
doing with the health of this state. An issue was raised about entitlements of
travel overseas by members of the Department of Health staff. For a lot of
those, it is doctors who are required to travel as part of their contract or
allowed to travel as part of their contract. A lot of it is done with what are
called SPA funds, which are in effect donated funds that are put into areas
that support travel. Sometimes it is done by companies that want to sell their
products and want to have the doctor trained in the use of that product, and
whether —
Mr R.H. Cook : But
it's about the reporting of that.
Mrs M.H. Roberts :
It's about the reporting of the freebies.
Dr K.D. HAMES : I
am getting there; patience is a virtue.
Those issues of whether there was the potential for
corruption came to my attention early when I saw the extent of travel. I
referred that to the Public Sector Commissioner to say I am concerned at the
extent of travel by the health department. He had a look through those and
could find nobody doing anything wrong that required an increased level of
scrutiny. Changes that he recommended were made. Subsequent to that, the
Auditor General had a look and found some further areas in which he had
concern, and he made some further recommendations for changes, and they were
done. As part of that, it was found that a number of people had not met the
requirements of reporting. That was put through to the department and the
department investigated. As I think I have said before in this house—I
am not positive, so I will say it again—the director general went
through all those and found no evidence whatever of corruption by those people
who had taken trips. He did find that they had not reported correctly the way
it should be reported. The issue is then what disciplinary action should be
taken against someone who has not done the reporting mechanisms properly but
has not committed corruption of any sort—has not done anything
inappropriate in the travel they have gone on. What has happened is that those
people have been very forcefully told by the director general that those requirements
must be met; in fact, we continue, through the department, to investigate and
go through all the claims that are made to make sure people are keeping up the
level of reporting required, and to make sure there is no opportunity for
corruption within that and to scrutinise and find out any evidence of
corruption. Once again, I can say there has been no evidence of any wrongdoing
or any corruption by anyone within the health department using overseas travel.
I will deal with the last issue first because that has been something of a
vexatious issue. Everyone who lives outside the metropolitan area is entitled
to make a claim when they need, for reasons of being a member of this house, to
claim an allowance. In effect, it covers the fact that you need two houses and
two mortgages. When in opposition, I moved to the south west, down to Mandurah.
I lived there; I virtually bached for four years because I had a daughter and a
disabled son in Perth that my wife needed to stay with. I stayed down there for
four years. When I became minister, it was not possible, particularly when
ministers have so much on, to drive back to Mandurah and then drive back here
in the morning for issues. I claim the nights I am entitled to claim; that is,
the nights on which it would really be extraordinarily difficult for me to get
down there and get back here for work the next day. That is a limited number of
occasions.
Mr R.H. Cook :
Where is your principal address?
Dr
K.D. HAMES : My address is in Mandurah. We have a house in Perth where my
wife and one of my children reside, so I stay there. It is perfectly
legitimate. Members on your side have done exactly the same for very many
years.
Mr
R.H. Cook : Who has?
Dr
K.D. HAMES : I only claim for those nights that the law entitles me, and
that is clearly transparent; members opposite can check that at any time.
Members opposite can do that; those are the rules.
Mrs
M.H. Roberts interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Sit down, please, minister. Member for Midland, I call you to
order for the first time.
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Minister for Health, I call you to order for the first time. Do
not talk when I am on my feet, please.
Dr K.D. HAMES : To
get back to the real issue here, it is the health of this state and what are we
doing with the health of this state. An issue was raised about entitlements of
travel overseas by members of the Department of Health staff. For a lot of
those, it is doctors who are required to travel as part of their contract or
allowed to travel as part of their contract. A lot of it is done with what are
called SPA funds, which are in effect donated funds that are put into areas
that support travel. Sometimes it is done by companies that want to sell their
products and want to have the doctor trained in the use of that product, and
whether —
Mr R.H. Cook : But
it's about the reporting of that.
Mrs M.H. Roberts :
It's about the reporting of the freebies.
Dr K.D. HAMES : I
am getting there; patience is a virtue.
Those issues of whether there was the potential for
corruption came to my attention early when I saw the extent of travel. I
referred that to the Public Sector Commissioner to say I am concerned at the
extent of travel by the health department. He had a look through those and
could find nobody doing anything wrong that required an increased level of
scrutiny. Changes that he recommended were made. Subsequent to that, the
Auditor General had a look and found some further areas in which he had
concern, and he made some further recommendations for changes, and they were
done. As part of that, it was found that a number of people had not met the
requirements of reporting. That was put through to the department and the
department investigated. As I think I have said before in this house—I
am not positive, so I will say it again—the director general went
through all those and found no evidence whatever of corruption by those people
who had taken trips. He did find that they had not reported correctly the way
it should be reported. The issue is then what disciplinary action should be
taken against someone who has not done the reporting mechanisms properly but
has not committed corruption of any sort—has not done anything
inappropriate in the travel they have gone on. What has happened is that those
people have been very forcefully told by the director general that those requirements
must be met; in fact, we continue, through the department, to investigate and
go through all the claims that are made to make sure people are keeping up the
level of reporting required, and to make sure there is no opportunity for
corruption within that and to scrutinise and find out any evidence of
corruption. Once again, I can say there has been no evidence of any wrongdoing
or any corruption by anyone within the health department using overseas travel.
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