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

I thank Senator Sterle. Again, this is where it is very important to understand that the government already is, as a matter of course, providing billions and billions of dollars of support to drought affected regional and rural communities. For example, as we speak now, $2 billion has already been allocated to support drought affected areas through additional measures that have been undertaken by our government. The additional funding under this legislation, through the Future Drought Fund, will become available from 1 July 2020, as is made clear in the legislation. There is obviously a body of work to be done should this legislation pass, which we hope it will, to put all the governance arrangements in place and to change the investment mandate and a series of related measures. If this passes, the government will act swiftly. This will mean that we will have a sustainable, reliable, recurring funding stream to boost funding for additional measures to support drought resilience projects by $100 million a year from 1 July 2020, and we will be able to grow this fund to $5 billion over a decade.