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

Thank you, Chair. I'm sure the former President of the Senate respects your upholding of the standing orders and processes here! As I say, Senator Brockman, we're still working through what the guidelines would involve. But I think it's a fair point that you make—that we need to be thinking not just about human impact but about economic impact. I had some meetings today with some groups about the economic impacts on supply chains that we see from natural disasters, so I think it would be reasonable to expect that there would be a broad range of factors that would be taken into account in determining what gets funded and what doesn't. But again I'd be happy to take any thoughts that you've got as we're preparing these guidelines.