Senator BRANDIS (Queensland—Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate, Vice-President of the Executive Council, Minister for Arts and Attorney-General) (14:48): Senator Rhiannon, I am extremely surprised to hear, from a member of the former Labor-Greens coalition, criticism of this government's treatment of the aid budget, because, might I remind you, Senator Rhiannon— The PRESIDENT: Pause the clock. Senator Rhiannon: Mr President, I rise on a point of order. To clarify: we opposed those cuts at that time. The PRESIDENT: That is a debating point, Senator Rhiannon. Senator Rhiannon: Could you ask the minister to be accurate? The PRESIDENT: That is not a point of order. Government senators interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Order on my right! Senator BRANDIS: I know Senator Rhiannon is very practiced at reinventing history. Senator Rhiannon of course has spent most of her life as a member of a political party that was particularly famous at reinventing history. But you are not going to get away with reinventing history this time, Senator Rhiannon, in your post-communist iteration. The PRESIDENT: Pause the clock. Senator Rhiannon: Mr President, I rise on a point of order. I draw your attention to him being, again, misleading. I have been in the Greens for over 20 years. It is not relevant, and he is misleading. Could you ask the minister to be relevant to the question? The PRESIDENT: I draw the minister's attention to the question. Senator BRANDIS: I am sorry; I acknowledge that Senator Rhiannon has not been officially a member of the Communist Party for the last 20 years. The PRESIDENT: The answer, Minister. Senator BRANDIS: Returning directly to Senator Rhiannon's question, the government which she supported in office removed $5.7 billion over the forward estimates from the foreign aid budget, and, as the foreign minister in the government that you, Senator Rhiannon, supported in office, former foreign minister Bob Carr said: you cannot have an unsustainable aid budget because you cannot run aid on borrowings. Those were former Senator Carr's words: 'You can't run aid on borrowings.' The current government has got the aid budget back on track. It has been stabilised, in the current financial year, at $5.032 billion, and it will be indexed across the forward estimates. So, Senator Rhiannon, while the government that you sustained in office slashed billions from the aid budget, this government has stabilised the budget and is committed to increasing it in line with CPI.