Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, I stand by all of the government’s stimulus measures. While the government have acknowledged that there have been specific problems in the Home Insulation Program, we have acted to deal with those problems. I will take on notice the question about the cost to the budget of the Home Insulation Program. As to the question of Commonwealth liability, it is my responsibility with respect to any prospective legal proceedings that may be issued against the Commonwealth—be they about this or any other matter—to effectively present reporting in the budget about risks, in the statement of risk, and also to oversight those potential liabilities. I am continuing to do that in this and other areas.

The questions relating to my role in developing the program and the points at which I became aware of the problems I referred to are matters that relate to cabinet deliberations, which I am not at liberty to reveal. As to the question suggesting that my department was sidelined from the process of the examination of problems or alleged problems in the Building the Education Revolution, my answer to that is that my department was not sidelined. It is a perfectly normal and legitimate thing, where an issue emerges in a particular portfolio, for the minister of that portfolio to initiate some kind of arms-length or independent examination of that—and that is not conducted by the Department of Finance and Administration. For obvious reasons, the situation of having one arm of government investigating another arm of government would give rise to accusations that this was not a genuine independent or arms-length examination of the problems. It is a perfectly normal situation under governments of both persuasions that, if there is to be some examination of this kind, one option is to have an inquiry or a task force of the kind which has been established.

As to the question of why there would still be $500 million of stimulus budgeted for the 2011-12 financial year, I suspect the answer to that question is that, inevitably, projects occur over an extended period of time. You obviously do not pay the entire cost of a project upfront. Typically, particularly with more substantial projects, there will be milestone payments and there will be payments at the completion of the project, as well as the payments at various stages along the line. I suspect you will find that that $500 million essentially reflects that pattern. Of course, it will reflect, retrospectively, private sector activity that has occurred in the preceding period.

The question of the decision regarding $400 million of infrastructure assistance for Western Australia was an item in the category of decisions taken but not yet announced. I can confirm that. I am not in a position to make any statements about when the remaining funds in either the Building Australia Fund or any of the other funds will be disbursed. That is not a decision I take unilaterally, obviously. I am not in a position to respond to that. Apologies, I am just looking through my scribbled notes to make sure that I have covered—

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