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

So the minister, who had the authority to make those decisions, made those decisions. And, as she made very clear in her own statements at the time, she was seeking to make those decisions in the best interests of what that program was seeking to do.

Now, the point I was making is that the Commonwealth Government Grant Rules and Guidelines are there to ensure that where a minister may take a view about what she believes is a project that has greater merit there is a process for setting out how that might be different from what advice or recommendation she might have received. But, Mr Speaker, I can tell you what the Auditor-General's report did not find. It did not find that elected members of this House, and it did not find that ministers, should not be making decisions about the expenditure of public moneys to suit the programs that have been established. The process is to ensure that you get good advice, and you can consider that advice, but ministers must make decisions.

Now, if those opposite think that ministers should be order-takers from public officials, who aren't elected, that's for them to say. I believe every single member of this House would advocate for the needs of their community. And these members advocated for the needs of their communities, and the minister made decisions. They were all eligible projects and she made the final decisions, as was her authority under the program as it was established. Where there are improvements to be made to that program in the future, they have been accepted.

Mr Gosling interjecting—

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