Senator REYNOLDS (Western Australia—Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and Minister for Government Services) (15:41): I thank the senator for the question. I can confirm that since 2013 the Australian government has committed more than $3.2 billion for infrastructure in the Northern Territory. And, in the 2020-21 budget— The PRESIDENT: Senator McCarthy, on a point of order? Senator McCarthy: My point of order is relevance; we're talking about beyond the forward estimates. The PRESIDENT: The minister's been speaking for 13 seconds. I'm listening carefully to the minister's answer. You've reminded the minister of the conclusion of your question. I will listen carefully to the minister's answer. I call her to continue. Senator REYNOLDS: My key message is that there are many, many different programs across the federal budget over multiple budget years that are putting money into the Northern Territory. So not only are there the City Deals—for example, for the City of Darwin that's a 10-year partnership, and that's $320 million—in this budget alone we've got $150 million for phase 2 of the Northern Territory National Network Highway Upgrades, $173 million towards a six-corridor upgrade under the Roads of Strategic Importance and $3 million for a development study for a proposal at Tennant Creek. The PRESIDENT: Sorry, Senator Reynolds. Senator McCarthy, on a point of order? Senator McCARTHY: A point of order on relevance: the question is 'beyond the forward estimates'. The PRESIDENT: I have been listening carefully to the minister's answer and I have allowed you to specifically remind her of that. If a question asks about a matter in the budget paper in a portfolio area, the minister is constraining her comments to, in essence, infrastructure projects in the Northern Territory. If I'm being asked to insist that she uses words to address the point of order in the specific nature you make it, I believe I'm crossing the line into instructing a minister how to answer the question. The minister is not straying into broader commentary about alternative policies but is speaking about infrastructure in the Northern Territory. I believe that is directly relevant. There is of course the opportunity after question time to debate it. Senator Wong, on the point of order? Senator Wong: On the point of order, I am not clear whether the minister is continuing to speak about the past but what I would submit is that for a question about the forward estimates and beyond that an answer that refers to past investment is not directly relevant to the question. Temporally, it makes no sense to suggest that you can answer a question about future spending only by referencing past spending. The PRESIDENT: I think, to be fair, the way I heard the minister answering the question was the minister was addressing and listing projects currently underway, not beyond the forward estimates. I think going into the territory of instructing a minister that in a portfolio area they can't talk about the budget to that degree of specificity is actually getting into the content. If the minister is talking about projects currently underway but they are within the forward estimates, there's an opportunity to debate whether the minister has answered the question to your satisfaction after question time, but I don't think can I say that's not directly relevant because the minister's constraining her comments to that specific issue of that policy area. Senator REYNOLDS: The point I was making is that we have been supporting the Northern Territory in a wide range of infrastructure projects, for all of the budgets, I believe, that we've had since coming into government—and don't forget that we do this in partnership with the Northern Territory government, and in fact we support projects that they put forward and that are shovel ready. I've just had a look, and, over the last budget and this budget, I can count at least 30 separate projects which are in various stages of construction—some are in planning, some are approved—and they go out well beyond the forward estimates. The fact that funding goes beyond the forward estimates is a good thing, because that means there is a steady pipeline of projects in the Northern Territory to sustain jobs, probably for at least a decade, if not more. So that, I think, is a great thing done by this government. The PRESIDENT: Senator McCarthy, a supplementary question?