Senator WATT (Queensland—Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Minister for Emergency Management) (14:58): Thank you, Senator Smith. Before addressing that, I might just mention that since January some 2.9 million people in Australia have accessed more than $3 billion in Australian government disaster recovery payments and $195 million provided through the Disaster Recovery Allowance program. But you asked what previous governments could have done differently. Firstly, the coalition could have, at any point over the past decade, acknowledged that climate change is real. Instead, we saw 10 years of government led climate wars—we're into the eleventh year now, it would appear—that held our country back, exposed Australians to risk and made us an international disgrace. With Senator Rennick and Senator Canavan still in the party room today showing that they have learnt absolutely nothing and that they still don't believe the science, we know that the coalition will never come around on the basic science. Senator Rennick interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Senator Rennick, I will remind you that you don't start your point of order until I call. Senator Rennick: That was a personal reflection under section 193(3). Could he please retract that remark? The PRESIDENT: The mention of two senators; is that what you're referring to? It wasn't a personal reflection. Senator WATT: As I was saying, what we've heard even today from Senator Rennick and Senator Canavan, among their colleagues, shows that nothing has changed. There are so many things the former government could have done. It could have spent a single cent from its Emergency Response Fund on just one disaster mitigation project. Instead it just earned interest. (Time expired) Senator Wong: I ask that further questions be placed on notice.