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

Thanks, Senator Pocock. I've been reminded that the legislation provides for a review of the annual disbursement level in five years time, so there would be an opportunity to have a look at it at that point in time. I would like to see this fund last in perpetuity, beyond 2047, beyond 2050. I think that as a country we always need to be investing more in disaster resilience, and should the fund end up, due to very high investment returns, earning a much higher principal, it may be possible to increase the annual disbursement amount down the track. But the advice that we've received so far is that, if we want to be able to continue generating roughly $200 million a year in investment returns that can be used for this purpose, that is the limit of what we can be spending from the fund every year. If we were to go to $300 million in the way that you've proposed, that would gradually erode the principal of the fund, which would mean that we would not be generating the kinds of investment returns we need every year to be able to keep going at the $200 million level, let alone $300 million.