Hey Minister, read this
The State Government Minister overseeing the bungled concessions payments system appears to have his wires crossed.
Tony Piccolo, Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, told State Parliament yesterday that InDaily’s reports of how much has been paid in “ineligible” concessions were “an absolute nonsense and outrage”.
Piccolo then went on to claim that our reports listed overpayments at $600 million.
“However, what I can say is that the fanciful figures put out by some, of $600 million, is just an absolute nonsense and outrage. Given that the whole annual program is only $122 million, it is hard to say that overpayments are $600 million,” he said.
Oh dear!
Perhaps the minister might want to go back and read each of our reports from July, August and again this week, along with the leaked internal report we revealed on Tuesday.
In August InDaily reported that the TOTAL payments made under the scheme amounted to $600 million over five years.
We then added: “On the basis of the leaked document’s estimate of 21 per cent ineligibility, the over-payments amount to $126 million over the last five years – $28.8 million in the 2012 financial year.”
The Minister’s misinterpretation of our story and his statement to parliament should be corrected.
Stay informed, daily
Piccolo told FIVEaa listeners yesterday that the estimates of overpayment were wrong and he repeated his assertion in parliament.
However, despite several questions from Opposition MP Iain Evans, Piccolo was unable to give any estimate of how much had been paid in ineligible concessions.
“An exact figure is not known, but I will provide an exact figure when that figure is known,” he said.
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