Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a second supplementary question. Given that the minister has mentioned the panel, did the government accept the advice of the department and the panel in the case of each and every project, and will the minister give a commitment to the Senate that no advice from the department was overturned by the minister in the case of allocating funding or otherwise determining projects? Furthermore, will the minister give a commitment that, in considering these applications, applying funding and making announcements regarding these projects, no discussions were had between his office or the department on the one hand and the ALP national secretariat and its staff or any of the respective state ALP secretariats and their staff on the other?