Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

The first point I make right up-front is that I've read the letter by Mr Turnbull and I don't have any issues with the way he describes the process. As I've said to the Senate before, the decision to make this additional substantial investment in the future health of the Great Barrier Reef followed a proper process. It was a proposal that was put to the Expenditure Review Committee by the then Minister for the Environment and Energy, Mr Frydenberg. It was considered through the normal process, and it's right.

We had a number of considerations in front of us. One was the advice from the department of the environment which indicated to us that it would be easier for us to leverage additional private sector investment if we made this federal government contribution through a non-government vehicle, which is ultimately what we did. Also, of course, as a result of the good economic and budget management of this government, we're tracking well ahead of where we anticipated we would be in terms of our budget performance. Revenue was up substantially and payments were down substantially in 2017-18, so we knew that it was affordable in 2017-18 to make this one-off contribution, providing certainty to those philanthropists who were considering making additional private sector contributions, instead of locking the Commonwealth into an ongoing liability year on year. These are all considerations that led us to the ultimate decision to make a substantial additional investment in the future health of the Great Barrier Reef, and I don't understand why Labor is so opposed to our investment in the future health of a great national asset.