Mary Fisher (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, I am sorry to say that I am, for what it is worth, offended by your interjection during the earlier asking of my questions. I am offended that you saw fit to allegedly interject with words to the effect of, ‘How long is this going to take?’ I am offended, Minister, because I think Australians are entitled to see from your government fairness and equity. Australians are fair. They will dig in and they will contribute, provided that they see fairness, and they are not seeing fairness from your government and they are not seeing equity—at a time when many of them are facing arguably some of the greatest personal hardship and distress of their working lives. That must be why your government has a program called the natural disaster assistance and recovery program. That must be why your government saw fit to provide assistance for personal hardship and distress.

So, Minister, in addition to my earlier questions, on what basis does the government consider itself able to judge the distress obviously caused to the people of Queensland and New South Wales by flooding in the 2010-11 year? On what basis does your government see fit to attempt to evaluate, in the words of your program, the ‘personal hardship and distress’ suffered by people in Queensland and New South Wales, for example, versus that suffered by others—suffered by the people of Victoria, the people of South Australia, the people of Tasmania and the people of Western Australia, whom your government has seen fit to assist under the natural disaster relief and recovery arrangements? If your government saw fit to assist those communities in their personal hardship and distress, then on what basis—this is my second question for right now—does your government differentiate between those people when deciding whether or not they are to be exempt from the levy to be paid by the Australian people to assist victims of the Queensland flooding?

Minister, let’s get more particular, and I am afraid I can. Let’s look at the wording of your program on the Attorney-General’s website. The assistance being given under the natural disaster relief and recovery arrangements—I hope you are not leaving the chamber, Minister. I am glad you have got to your feet. Are you answering my questions? No, it would appear not.