Audit into Labor disability funding grants

THE auditor-general is to investigate disability service grants which the opposition says were skewed towards Labor and Greens electorates.

Auditor-General Ian McPhee has begun a performance audit into the $60 million Supported Accommodation Innovation Fund.

The investigation was sparked by a complaint from Liberal MP Jamie Briggs, who says that four grants went to coalition-held seats, compared with 35 to Labor-held seats and seven to the seat of Melbourne held by Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt.

"This funding was supposed to help people in need of supported accommodation, not Labor members of parliament trying to hold onto their seats at the next election," Mr Briggs said.

"The coalition is not questioning the merits of any individual project or the successful organisations, just the process followed by the government."

Mr Briggs said while he welcomed the audit, the government needed to explain the anomaly immediately.

Mr McPhee said in his letter to Mr Briggs that the audit would focus on the advice given by the department to the minister and the distribution of money, including the way in which the merits of competing applications were considered.

The SAIF, announced by the Labor government in April 2012, was set up to deliver 150 new accommodation places for people with a disability.

Comment was being sought from the parliamentary secretary for disabilities Senator Jan McLucas.

However, it is understood the figures cited by Mr Briggs related to head offices of organisations, and the accommodation itself was divided into 17 Labor seats and nine Liberal-National seats.

Senator McLucas said an exhaustive process produced a "merit list" from which the successful grant recipients were taken.

"Selection criteria were developed to cover a range of important aspects including innovation and quality, experience, and governance," she told AAP.

"The assessment process included a technical score related to the responses to the selection criteria, a value for money assessment and risk assessments of financial and organisational capacity."

Advice was taken from an independent probity expert and capital works specialist.

A total of 21 organisations were responsible for 27 projects, providing 169 new supported accommodation and respite places across the country.

Of these, 17 projects are being built in seats held by ALP members, nine in Liberal or Nationals-held seats, and one site is to be confirmed.

The coalition's figures were based on head office location and not where the accommodation is being built.

The applicants also needed to show they had secured long-term funding from other sources to manage the accommodation.

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Feds open to direct hospital funding

HEALTH Minister Tanya Plibersek says states other than Victoria may see federal funds paid directly to their hospitals.

Ms Plibersek on Wednesday night agreed to provide an extra $107 million to Victorian hospitals, saying the government could not stand by and watch Premier Ted Baillieu cut the state's health budget and put patient services at risk.

The Victorian coalition government says the change of heart is a short-term political fix and a "first step" in restoring the full $475 million in federal funding they say has been cut from the state's health budget over four years.

Ms Plibersek said the prime minister had written to other states and told them the federal government would be prepared to do the same if they play politics with health.

"If state governments are going to play politics with the health and safety of patients then there will be times when I need to step in," Ms Plibersek told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.

She said any funds would be taken from money a state government would already be eligible for under other programs.

In the case of Victoria, $55 million came from money set aside to go to that state if it brought its occupational health and safety laws into line with a national approach.

"If we have to do that in other states we are open to it but it's a redirection of their state funding to their hospital services," the minister said.

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Baillieu agreed to funding formula: Rudd

ACCUSATIONS the federal government had used "dodgy" figures to calculate Victoria's health funding strikes at the integrity of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, says former prime minister Kevin Rudd.

Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu has previously accused Canberra of using "dodgy" population figures to slash $475 million from the state's health budget over four years, including $107 million this financial year.

Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek on Wednesday night announced a backdown, reinstating the $107 million in funding for Victorian hospitals.

Mr Rudd said the ABS was not a government department that does the minister's bidding, but independently calculates data.

"For him to suggest the ABS is producing dodgy figures is a direct accusation concerning the integrity of the Australian Bureau of Statistics," Mr Rudd told Fairfax Radio on Thursday.

Mr Rudd said Mr Baillieu had signed up to an agreement in 2011 setting out the formula for calculating funding.

"He signed up to that. That is the formula," Mr Rudd said.

"He has sought to blame his own cuts to elective surgery on a Commonwealth adjustment."

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