Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Isn’t it the case that failing to properly manage a $1 billion grant program leaves the system wide open to abuse? Don’t Australians have every right to be cynical about the Howard government’s politically motivated abuse of taxpayer funded grants in the wake of the regional rorts scandal? Can the minister now provide an absolute assurance that every last cent of the $1 billion community sector grants program has been properly administered and acquitted?