Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have listened to this debate carefully during the course of the afternoon. I want to attach myself to one of the remarks made by the minister in his contribution: this issue is simply far too important to be politicised by the Senate, when having regard to the facts. If you had listened to the contributions made by the Greens and those opposite you would wonder where their research has taken them. Statements made by them cannot be supported by the empirical evidence that is available in relation to this important subject.

I have been in this chamber for months now, listening to any number of answers provided, not just by the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, but by other ministers who have exposure in this portfolio area; and, clearly, those who have made a contribution today from the other side have not listened once to the explanations provided over that time. The minister articulated quite clearly today the adjustments with respect to the funding; and the previous speaker, on two occasions, made comments about funding cuts of one billion dollars, only to correct that in the last part of her presentation. I ask: how can you get that figure so wrong?

We know that the impact of the reduction in funding, spread over a period of time, is less than 0.01 per cent of the money that this government is spending in the area of Indigenous affairs. Mind you, when it comes to a contribution from the Greens, I expect nothing less. They have devoted 90 per cent of their time to talking about kangaroos, possums, coral and closing down the resource sector; there are hours and hours of contributions about the merits of the introduction of wind turbines. The only time—and I spend a lot of time in this chamber in the whip's position, a lot more than anybody else—