Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I find this interesting. You think that there could be dozens and dozens of these organisations who could be eligible. Have you done any work in your consultation as to how many organisations might apply? You said you've done some consultation. You must have an idea of how many applications you're going to get. The reason I'm interested in this is that it helps us to understand how effective this is going to be as an innovation fund. If there are dozens and dozens of organisations that would be eligible under the criteria, how on earth will you determine which organisations in which locations will get access to this support? Would we be in a situation where Queensland, for example, gets nothing but your home state of Victoria and the regional newspapers in Victoria get a lot? Or, indeed, would it be that the media agencies in Queensland would get a lot and, say, those in my home state of South Australia will not?

You said to me you didn't want to explore, in this place, why $50 million was put on the table. You're now telling me that dozens and dozens of agencies would be eligible. How on earth are we going to decide which ones get them? How do we make sure this isn't just a pork-barrelling exercise for the government?