COUNTRY AGE PENSION FUEL
CARD
754. Hon COLIN HOLT to the Minister for Regional
Development:
I refer to the Country Age Pension
Fuel Card.
(1) What barriers
were identified to prevent the rollover of unexpended fuel card funds from last
financial year to this financial year?
(2) Please provide
a copy of any data that shows that COVID-19 has had no impact on the spending
of fuel card funds?
(3) In reference to the renewal of
fuel cards each financial year —
(a) are replacement fuel cards sent
to all recipients in the post;
(b) what is the cost to the
department to provide these cards each year; and
(c) when are these replacement cards
posted?
(4) Please provide an update on the
unexpended balances of cards for 2019–20 as per postal locality?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for some notice
of this question.
(1) As the member
would understand, the idea of the Country Age Pension Fuel Card is to make
travel more affordable for some people
living in regional Western Australia, and is, in essence, a subsidy. Where
travel was reduced by cardholders, less travel expense was incurred and
less subsidy required. Responsible government requires that difficult decisions
have to be made about how much funding can be diverted to any one program or
project. This government has diverted very large sums of money for COVID-19
recovery, and this must be our priority.
(2) Analysis reveals the expenditure profile for
fuel card use up to 30 June 2020 is broadly consistent with expenditure levels in previous years—there
has not been a significant change—despite the travel restrictions
in place earlier in the year.
I seek leave to have the following
incorporated into Hansard.
Leave granted.
The following material was
incorporated —
Refer
below table for statistics provided by the Department of Transport
(administrator of the Country Age Pension Fuel Card Scheme) as at 30 June 2020:
|
2015/16
|
2016/17
|
2017/18
|
2018/19
|
2019/20
|
|
Number of cardholders each year
|
52,779
|
54,183
|
53,734
|
54,675
|
55,213
|
|
Actual expenditure on the cards each year
|
$24,934,305
|
$26,350,123
|
$26,162,936
|
$26,552,402
|
$26,165,812
|
|
Percentage of fully expended cards each year
|
88.3%
|
90.14%
|
90.48%
|
74.99%
|
85.34%
|
(3) (a) Yes.
(b) The cost to
the Department of Transport to provide these cards in 2019–20 was
$41.49 per card. This cost includes all administration costs related to card
production.
(c) Eligible
renewed fuel cards are processed on 1 July each year. All renewed cards are
produced, packaged and posted within five days to cardholders using Australia
Post. As delivery by Australia Post cannot be
controlled, the policy advises cardholders that the cards will be received by
the end of July. Most cardholders receive their new card within the first two
weeks of July.
(4) This
information cannot be provided within the time frame and the member may
consider putting the question on notice.