Bob McMullan (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance) Share this | Hansard source

I will deal with the last one first, as I am sincerely hoping that the Minister for Trade is going to come along and deal with the trade issues. Otherwise you are going to get very rusty old information from a long time ago, because I do not deal with that area, and I am expecting the Minister for Trade.

Of course, in my answer I did not mean to say that the $106 million was plucked out of thin air or based on no planning; it is simply that the final decision about the allocation has not been made. We have looked at the parameters of what is needed against the resources available and there is an envelope and a series of particular decisions that have been made about applications of it. There is of course some work underway but nothing that is at a level of finality that I, or the minister, am in a position to announce at this stage. But the money has been set aside to strengthen our engagement with some of those key countries. I look forward with some anticipation to the detail being made available. And I am looking forward with even more anticipation to the Minister for Trade arriving to deal with his particular issues!

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