Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Sterle. One of the worst aspects of the report tabled last week was what it had to say about ministerial panel composition and record-keeping of decisions. That presumes that there was record-keeping of decisions, which, of course, there was not. Instead of transparent, accountable decision-making, ministerial decisions were shrouded in secrecy. The ministerial panel made decisions on the basis of 'choose your own adventure' criteria—a non-exhaustive list of other factors that were not fully explained to those applying for grants.

I know that the Nationals have again said this was all about supporting the regions, but, of course, what happened with this program was that some regional areas were dumped to favour certain other regional areas. Would they maybe have been regional areas that had the right colour code next to them in a spreadsheet? We all know that's how the Nationals went about decision-making. Who benefited most from this? It was the Nationals. The Nationals benefited the most, as proper process was actively ignored. Those seats got $104 million more than they would have if the proper process had been followed. (Time expired)