McKenzie, Sen Bridget

Senator McKENZIE (Victoria—Minister for Emergency Management and National Recovery and Resilience, Minister for Regionalisation, Regional Communications and Regional Education and Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) (14:58): I do thank the senator for his interest in how our government is supporting those communities right throughout rural and regional Australia recover from natural disasters, respond to what is— The PRESIDENT: Senator Farrell, on a point of order? Senator Farrell: A point of order, Mr President. It was a very simple straightforward question: how many discretionary grant programs is the minister responsible for? The PRESIDENT: You have reminded the minister of the question. I will take the opportunity that, while I won't judge direct relevance in 15 seconds when the minister is introducing her answer, I will remind the minister it was a very factual question and doesn't provide much room for commentary in order to be directly relevant. Senator McKenzie. Senator McKENZIE: Thank you, Mr President. Senator Farrell—through you, Mr President—I was absolutely going to outline all the grant programs that our government is very proud to be able deliver to the communities who've been affected by flood, by bushfire— The PRESIDENT: Senator McKenzie, I have Senator Farrell on a point of order. Senator Farrell: I appreciate that this is the first time the minister has had to answer questions since her coming back to the position— The PRESIDENT: Yes, Senator Farrell. I ask you to come to the point of order. Senator Farrell: but I don't want to know all of the programs that the government has in the grant area. I want to know how many this minister is responsible for. The PRESIDENT: Senator Farrell, I do allow flexibility in making a point on direct relevance, but I do ask that senators draw it to that. Senator McKenzie, this was a factual question asking about programs, not rationale or commentary around the programs. The minister's entitled to list programs and be directly relevant or answer in a form that Senator Farrell would seek, but it's not a place for commentary around programs. Senator McKENZIE: Thank you, Mr President. I will go through the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements—the disaster resilience Australia package—where the minister is responsible for the measure but the decisions are delegated to the National Recovery and Resilience Agency. That's $2.1 million for this financial year. The disaster risk reduction package is a package to reduce the risk and impact of disasters on Australians, in line with our Disaster Risk Reduction Framework. It has co-funding, obviously, with the Australian and state and territory governments. Approval for these reports by the minister for emergency management and the National Recovery and Resilience Agency will trigger payments for 2021-22 to the states and territories in June 2022. Then we have the Emergency Response Fund. This funding is actually to fund emergency response, natural disaster recovery and preparedness initiatives. That is also within the purview of the NRRA. Then we have the Black Summer Bushfire Recovery Grants program, a $280 million grant program over the next three years, which is actually to assist those communities that have been impacted by bushfires. The Minister for Emergency Management and National Recovery and Resilience—that would be me—is the decision-maker. The Local Economic Recovery Program— (Time expired) The PRESIDENT: Senator Farrell, a supplementary question?