Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

We have been given a schedule that sets out numbers next to a number of years, and those are the budget allocations for those particular years. Those numbers are obviously less than what ARENA currently gets. I am seeking clarification about where the cuts fall. The cuts are in the order of half a billion dollars, and I am seeking clarification as to which years they fall in. On my quick reading of it—given that we have not had a lot of time to pursue this—$241 million will come out in 2017-18 and $213 million comes out in 2019-20. The overwhelming bulk of the cuts—more than $514 million of the $517 million-odd in cuts—will come out in the first three years. Is that how we should understand the amendments we are being asked to vote on?

See this speech in context