Senator McKENZIE (Victoria—Minister for Agriculture and Leader of the Nationals in the Senate) (14:44): I thank the senator for her question and for her interest in drought affected communities, and in regional Victoria in particular. The Drought Communities Program is an incredibly popular program, where $1 million is provided to over 122 councils across the country which are drought affected. It's been going for a couple of years and there have been three rounds thus far. It uses measurements such as rainfall and agricultural employment, amongst a raft of other measures, to determine eligibility. If councils are successful in attaining Drought Communities Program eligibility they can put forward projects to stimulate their local economy: anything from doing up the local hall to building a road. Some councils in South Australia have actually decided to employ drought support officers—yes, stimulating local employment but also making sure that that local community has a dedicated person to look after needs in the drought. So it's been an incredibly popular program. We've expanded it, under our new drought response, to include an additional six councils— The PRESIDENT: Order! Senator Walsh on a point of order? Senator Walsh: My point of order is on relevance. The question was: why did the people of Moira find out last night that they are not eligible for this program? The PRESIDENT: I note the minister has provided some general context about the program and that she has 45 seconds remaining to come to the specifics of the question, as you've highlighted, Senator Walsh. Senator McKENZIE: With respect to the specifics of the conversation and advice you're speaking about from last night, I'll have to take that on notice. I'll endeavour to do that— Senator Wong: They're not eligible! Senator McKENZIE: I was not in the room, Senator Wong, through you, Mr President, to actually have an appreciation of that. But I think the Senate knows that when I say I'm going to get back to you I always do. The methodology, as I've outlined, takes into account agricultural employment and also rainfall data. It's an incredibly popular program. We gave those 122 councils who were already recipients of Drought Communities Program funding last week an additional amount of money— (Time expired) The PRESIDENT: Senator Walsh, a supplementary question?