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

I completely reject the premise of this question. It's a rather offensive question. We've got rural families and communities around Australia suffering from the impact of the drought. This government is standing shoulder to shoulder with those families and those communities, and we have appreciated the level of bipartisan support for many of the efforts we've put in place. Let me just say that it is a completely outrageous proposition and I reject the premise of the question. We have a very ambitious plan to support drought-affected communities now and into the future, building drought resilience into the future, and we are absolutely focused on doing the right thing in the public interest, in the national interest, at this difficult time and also building the necessary infrastructure to secure a better future.