Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to add to an answer I provided to a question from Senator Watt yesterday.

Leave granted.

I thank the Senate. Mr President, I've written to you in relation to an answer I gave to a question from Senator Watt yesterday in relation to bushfire relief. I stated that about $1.4 billion worth of bushfire response and recovery funding is already hitting the ground in communities. To clarify my answer, most of this $1.4 billion in funding comes from our $2 billion National Bushfire Recovery Fund—around $1 billion of it, in fact, as I've previously stated. This, of course, includes funding that represents our share of the debris clean-up, which will be reimbursed to the state government in accordance with standard arrangements. The clean-up is well underway, as I also outlined yesterday.

However, as the Prime Minister always said, the $2 billion fund was in addition to the response and recovery funding that the Commonwealth already funds under standard disaster recovery arrangements. Around $400 million of the $1.4 billion I referenced as already hitting the ground is part of those standard disaster recovery arrangements with Commonwealth funds. The fact remains that we have over $1.4 billion in federal funding in response to the bushfire crisis hitting the ground in affected communities, and this is assisting those communities now. I hope that that clarifies the answer provided yesterday, and I table the letter.

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Minister Cormann for providing that statement to the Senate. I seek leave to take note of the minister's statement.

Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for three minutes.

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's all I need. As I was saying, I thank Minister Cormann for the statement that he just made there, but unfortunately, again, we've seen in that statement from Minister Cormann three hallmarks of this government from him and from the Prime Minister: misrepresentations of their previous statements, getting basic figures wrong and being loose with the truth.

I will just remind people what this concerns. Yesterday I asked Minister Cormann a number of questions about the pathetic efforts of this government in relation to bushfire recovery. In answer to the questions that I asked, the minister claimed:

About $1.4 billion worth of funding out of $2 billion—

in the National Bushfire Recovery Fund—

is already hitting the ground in communities

I wasn't surprised that the minister made that comment, because this is one of the misrepresentations that this government is consistently making in relation to bushfire recovery. The truth is that the Prime Minister announced a $2 billion Bushfire Recovery Fund in January this year. The government's own figures, which were tabled about a week or so ago, indicate that only $529 million of that $2 billion fund has been spent. The government then tries to include another $470 million or so that it will be spending in the future on things like debris removal and tries to say that it has therefore spent a billion dollars from the $2 billion fund, even though it has actually spent only $529 on its own figures. Then, to be a little bit more cheeky, it throws in another $400 million of grants and loans that have been made to bushfire victims, as occurs after every single disaster that this country faces. That extra $400 million has nothing whatsoever to do with the $2 billion Bushfire Recovery Fund, which, as I say, on the government's own figures, has spent only $529 million.

So I was a little disappointed when I got Senator Cormann's letter today, where he says that what he said yesterday was that about $1.4 billion worth of bushfire response and recovery funding is already hitting the ground. If that were what he had said yesterday, there wouldn't have been a need for me to write to him. But the truth is that that is not what he said yesterday. What he said yesterday in answer to the question I asked was that $1.4 billion of funding out of the $2 billion fund is being spent. That is simply not true and I think it would have been preferable for him to be honest in his answer in the letter that he provided to the Senate today and to admit that he got it wrong. It is very disappointing that we see this minister misrepresent his previous statements. It is yet another example of him and this government getting their figures wrong—anyone remember the $60 billion JobKeeper bungle? I think I remember that one! This minister does have a problem with numbers—he didn't get them from Peter Dutton, either! Again, they are being loose with the truth.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for two minutes.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to follow Senator Watt's comments and just make this point. When you have the Leader of Government in the Senate being loose with the truth in question time, being given the opportunity to come in here and demonstrate the accountability that our democracy demands from ministers, to demonstrate as the leader—the examples to his frontbenchers—what do we get? We get more measly words, more tricky words—a bit loose with the truth—and he doesn't fess up to the fact that he got it wrong. We would have more regard for ministers on that side if they were actually prepared to come in here and say, 'I correct the record'. That's what democracy requires. But even from Senator Cormann, who otherwise is generally somebody who does understand this democratic principle, we get more words where he's saying, 'I didn't actually say that,' when we know he did. In the same question time we have Senator Colbeck refusing to acknowledge what 'after tax' means. We have Senator Reynolds saying that a change from three to five days isn't a change. This is a mockery. What it demonstrates is the rot at the top of the Morrison government, where the Prime Minister is loose with the truth. You're all being infected by it and you are bringing it into question time, which is a travesty of what it should be in our democracy. Senator Cormann, you should be ashamed of yourself and you should have fronted up.