Senator BRANDIS (Queensland—Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate, Vice-President of the Executive Council, Minister for Arts and Attorney-General) (14:00): Senator Fifield, be silent. Mr President, I am delighted that for the first time, I suspect, ever the first question in question time is about arts funding. The Abbott government has such a wonderful story to tell about arts funding. We of course live in straightened fiscal circumstances, there is no doubt about that, as a result of the legacy of Australia's worst ever finance minister. Nevertheless, in this year's budget, once again, arts funding was protected. The same amount of funding that was available has been continued into the same year. Not a dollar has been taken away, not a dollar. But what we have done is that we have moved some 13 per cent of the funding that was paid for the arts through the Australia Council into a new program, the National Program for Excellence in the Arts. The reason for that is that there are some— Senator Moore: Mr President, I rise on a point of order on direct relevance to the question, though I do take the point that the minister is talking about the publicity. The question specifically asked whether he had met with the 60 representatives of the organisations in Parliament House today. I hope the minister would get to that question. The PRESIDENT: In relation to the point of order, the preamble from Senator Collins did mention the money cut from the arts funding. The minister has been addressing that point of the question. He still has half his time left to get to the second point in the question. I take your point, Senator Moore.