Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

We have specifically amended the AusLink guidelines to include rest stop funding. I understand the point you are making, Senator Fielding—I think I have got it—and I would probably say that, because of other amendments, it is not just automatically indexed; it is now going to be voted on by the Senate. At this stage there isn’t a proposal on the table to increase it. It is a little hard for us to allocate money to a future increase when we have not got a future increase.

I think the point you are trying to make is that if there were to be an increase in the future there should be an increase in funding. I think that is the point you are trying to get to. What I would probably say is that, given that it is a disallowable instrument, I am sure the Senate would take a view about the level of funding for road stops into consideration when deciding how to vote on the increase in the charge. But it is a little hard for us to talk about future increases in money for roadside stops when we do not have a proposal for a future increase at this stage. I am not sure that there is much more that I can suggest.