Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. There are two things. We were not prepared to spend money in the same form that it was being spent previously and in doing so repeat the mistakes of the past. Hence, when that money was not able to be expended in a way that could be sustainable, I took the decision—and there was a plethora of issues around that dealing with states and territories et cetera that fed into that decision—that we would apply for that to be rephased through Finance. I have every confidence that that will be done and that money will be applied to this year. It is a standard practice. It happens across all departments. It happens across all governments, and there is no reason to suggest that that money will be lost to Indigenous affairs.

I take the opportunity to remind the House that this is the largest single injection into remote Indigenous housing that this nation has ever seen, being $1.6 billion. There has been nothing even remotely like it. Of course that $60 million will come into this new year. As of today, we are finalising details of major housing developments in a number of remote communities—and certainly in those communities the likes have never been seen—to occur in this dry season. As you would appreciate, the wet and the dry have a big implication as to (a) cost and (b) your capacity to deliver.

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