Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

As I was outlining and as I have outlined previously, there has been a focus on and a prioritisation of the Caring for our Country funding in accordance with the approach that Ministers Garrett and Burke have outlined. Obviously, reprioritising for issues of national priority has meant the government has focused its funding in those areas. I reiterate that regional bodies will receive approximately 75 per cent of their historic funding level in 2008-09 and I indicate that decisions on each body’s share of the available transition support budget took into account principles such as equity between jurisdictions, local transitional pressures, regional capacity and level of funding support from other avenues, operational overheads and the level of carryover in regions. On the specific three organisations the senator alluded to I will undertake to see if I can obtain further information.