Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I can confirm that Senator Gallagher is quoting from what I understand to be an Australia Institute study that has selectively chosen a number—a very small number—of Commonwealth grant programs upon which to base its analysis. That's where Senator Gallagher is drawing her figures from: an Australia Institute survey. I imagine she is quoting from the report published in the Guardian of the Australia Institute survey. It's quite a virtuous little cycle we've got going here. The Australia Institute does the report, the Guardian publishes it and the Labor Party asks about it, but, of course, it's all just selective reporting when it comes to these matters. The fact is that, in selecting these targeted areas, there's a disproportionate capturing regional grants, for example, where the coalition holds the vast majority of electorates, so it would be of little surprise that these regional programs support— (Time expired)