Mr Jenkins asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, upon notice, on 3 November 2003:

(1) What is (a) the number of community based child care centres that are located in the electoral division of Scullin, (b) the name and address of each centre, and (c) the sum of Australian Government funding that each centre received in (i) 2001-2002, (ii) 2002-2003, and (iii) 2003-2004.

(2) For each community based child care centre, what is the amount of funding paid as (a) operational subsidy, (b) special needs subsidy, (c) establishment grants, and (d) block grant assistance (transitional assistance).

(3) Which Commonwealth funded child centres located in the electorate of Scullin have been overpaid and what sum will each child care centre be asked to repay.

Mr Anthony (Minister for Children and Youth Affairs) —The answer to the honourable member's question is as follows:

(1) (a) There are 26 approved community based child care centres in the electoral division of Scullin. (b) The name and address of each approved community based child care centre in the electoral division of Scullin is listed in the table below.

ASC - After school hours care, BSC - Before school hours care, LDC - Long day care, VAC - vacation care

Source: Centrelink administrative data as at 3/10/03

(1) (c) The total amount of Australian Government funding received by community based centres in the electoral division of Scullin is listed below. These amounts do not include Child Care Benefit or Childcare Assistance as these amounts are notionally paid to families rather than to services although aggregated amounts are paid to services. Each service must apply for subsidies and grants, and meet specific eligibility criteria.

Source: Victorian State Office as at 13/11/03

* While the 2001-02 and 2002-03 data represents total funding received, the 2003-2004 financial year data represents total funding allocated to the services.

(2) The type of funding received by community based child care centres in the electoral division of Scullin is listed in the table below. These amounts do not include Child Care Benefit or Childcare Assistance as these amounts are notionally paid to families rather than to services although aggregated amounts are paid to services. Each service must apply for the noted subsidies and grants, and meet specific eligibility criteria.

(a) operational subsidy: none of the community based centres received this funding in the specified financial years.

(c) est. grants = establishment grants.

(d) block grant assistance (transitional assistance): none of the community based centres received this funding in the specified financial years.

* While the 2001-02 and 2002-03 data represents funding received, the 2003-2004 financial year data represents funding allocated to the services.

Source: Victorian State Office as at 13/11/03.

(3) Child Care Benefit (CCB) is paid in advance to services on behalf of eligible families to enable services to reduce the child care fees of those families. CCB is paid on an ongoing advance/acquit basis. No debts or overpayments are raised as part of this ongoing process. If the Member for Scullin would like more information on the CCB advance/acquit process, I would be happy to provide the information.

Nine (9) Australian Government funded child care centres in the electorate of Scullin have had Childcare Assistance overpayments recorded against them. The total amount of Childcare Assistance that these nine (9) centres were asked to repay was $63 721.97. As at 18 November 2003, of these nine (9) centres only one centre had an amount of $296.37 remaining yet to be recovered. As the Honourable Member would appreciate, information about child care centres' debts to the Australian Government is commercially sensitive. The public disclosure of such information could have adverse commercial consequences for these services.