Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. While gifts of royal carriages to the Queen have occurred in the past under governments of both persuasions, why did the funding of a private gift to the Queen of a gold encrusted, horsedrawn carriage with ducted heating and diamond-set door handles require cabinet approval, but your $10 billion proposal to take over the Murray-Darling Basin from the states did not?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is an interesting change in questions, Mr Speaker. I can say that appropriate processes were followed in both cases.