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

r BIRMINGHAM (—) (): I think I can give it a crack in terms of explaining, in relation to regional grants programs, why it is that coalition seats have benefited overall—when you take all electorates across the country—more than Labor-held seats or even why Independents might've benefited more. That would be the maths of the fact that the coalition holds more regional seats than the Labor Party does. In terms of proportionality, the Independents have greater representation in some of the regions than they do in some of the urban areas. In terms of distorting statistics and figures, which is what is being bowled up here, the simple reality of these programs is, yes, they will support Liberal and National Party held seats to a greater degree because those communities have elected Liberal and National Party MPs across regional Australia, or in some cases they've elected Independent MPs. That is simply a function of our parties holding those electorates.