Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I'm glad the member opposite can read a press release, because we're very transparent about the arrangements we put in place for these major projects. We're getting on and doing those projects, and I absolutely welcome the support of the New South Wales government. These projects are projects that, frankly, should be fully funded by state governments, but our Commonwealth government is going to turn up and support state governments that want to build dams.

Our support for this project is 50 per cent of the funding. Half of that is coming from concessional finance and half of that is coming from direct grant support. That's what we announced on Sunday, and that's what was warmly received by the New South Wales state government. Whether it's the shire council up there in the member for New England's electorate or elsewhere across New South Wales, we're getting on and we're building dams. We're building infrastructure. We have $1½ billion now in 21 water infrastructure projects all around the country, whether it's Scottsdale down in Tasmania, out at Dungowan or up in Queensland, where we'd like to build a lot more dams. We want to build the Emu Swamp dam.

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