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

Senator Lambie, this being my first budget participating as a minister, I'm not about to give away details of the Treasurer's budget. I can say there are going to be some very strong commitments in the disaster management space tonight. You may be aware we made an election commitment to provide a grant to Disaster Relief Australia, a veteran led volunteer organisation you're no doubt familiar with. We're fighting hard to make sure we deliver that commitment. Of course, any work the federal government does in this space is to supplement the leadership role that states and territories play. We don't want to come in over the top of states and territories. We want to supplement them with ADF work resources, volunteer organisations and a range of NGOs as well.

The former government had 10 years to get these things right. They didn't. We're now here. Now we're trying to fix their mess in this space, as we are in so many others.