Your
article regarding The Salvation Army dated November 14, was referred to
me today and I would like to correct some of the inaccurate comments it
contains.

The Salvation Army Employment Plus is the largest
organisation in the Job Network (14.7% share). It receives considerably
less funding than your article suggests from the Commonwealth
Government which fully funds the work we do in this area. The salaries
paid to its staff are discounted for the tax benefits we are entitled
to pay to our staff as you suggest but the net result is pay
commensurate with the rest of the Job Network industry.

The
total anticipated income of The Salvation Army Social Trust, throughout
Australia in the present financial year is $483 million. We anticipate
assisting 1,650,000 people during this 12 months, which is a 10%
increase on the previous year.

Including the money we receive
from the Job Network we receive 56% of our funding from Commonwealth
and State Governments. This means we can be independent from Government
and in fact even on employment related matters we speak out against
government policies as a glance at our web site will show
(www.salvationarmy.org.au/media). In fact, we are not the only church
operating a Job Network service that has spoken out against
Commonwealth Government policies in recent months.

When
checking our statements you will also find our reasons for selling our
Aged Care facilities recently. They include the fact that we were
losing so much money on operating aged care facilities because of the
Commonwealth Government policies in relationship to the percentage of
people who can be accommodated in a centre without paying a bond that
we tried, unsuccessfully to get the government to change their policy
from 17% of residents to the 60% we accommodated.

We could not turn
people away because they were unable to afford a bond and be true to
our principles of caring for the most disadvantaged. We were then
forced to sell our centres to enable us to continue serving the needs
of the most disadvantaged aged in our remaining centres which now
operate at a loss using the capital we have received from the sale of
the15 aged facilities after we have paid for the losses we have
incurred operating them in a more compassionate way than the Government
allows.

We
are a substantial organisation that is subject to
normal auditing procedures and published accounts that again can be
viewed on our web site. You will see that we have a working capital of
eight days’ income. This is only possible because of the very reliable
and
diverse income base from the public, corporate and government sectors.

The
Salvos esteemed by soldiers in two World Wars is now called on to
bridge the gap in a far more unequal society than at any time in our
history. We believe that this is the issue of today just as caring for
soldiers was in a time of war.