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

Labor, as always, have got this wrong. A $2 billion two-year program, and in the first six months we will have spent nearly half. This is a program that is implemented on an evolving basis. Over $170 million has been allocated to 10,000 small business support grants, over $100 million in expanded primary producer grants, over $32 million in back-to-school support payments, over $60 million in payments to impacted local government areas, over $27 million in mental health support to school communities and emergency services workers, over $50 million in emergency relief and financial counselling, over $26 million for wildlife and habitat recovery, and, by the end of June, $400 million will be paid out of the fund to reimburse states for clean-up costs. And of course the timing of these payments—and that is something else that Senator Watt doesn't understand—actually depends on when the invoices come in. I know the Labor Party wants to just throw the money out without the invoices having come in, but we actually pay on invoice.