Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

We do support the passage of the government's appropriations bill, as we do not block supply. We will not be supporting Senator Leyonhjelm's amendment, although we thank him for consulting with us on the subject of the amendment prior to it being circulated and recognise his genuine interest in this area.

We do see the merit in allowing government the flexibility when it comes to increasing the national partnership payments. While we will not be supporting the amendment there are legitimate questions to ask the government as to why the limit is $25 billion when there is only $10.5 billion budgeted for the national partnership payments as per the Treasurer's portfolio budget statements—that is, the amount budgeted is less than half of the total budget spend. Note that a buffer of this magnitude was in the 2014-15 appropriation bills as well. Is the minister able to explain why the buffer is as large as it is?