Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Madigan for his question. There has been some speculation about the government's grants programs due to reports in newspapers, and I welcome this opportunity to provide some facts. The government is collecting additional information on how grants programs are being rolled out and we are going through a process of examining every dollar of spending to make sure taxpayers are getting value for money. This is a normal part of the budget process and is exactly what fiscally responsible governments do. This means that while this process is underway there will be a brief pause in the granting of funds. However, at this stage, all the background work such as the preparation of guidelines, assessment of applications et cetera is continuing in the normal way.

I can assure the senator there are no design flaws in the Clean Technology Investment Program and it is being implemented very well. In fact, it is a very popular program with industry, as I am sure the senator is aware, and is assisting the manufacturing sector make the transition to a clean energy economy.