Ms McBAIN (Eden-Monaro—Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) (14:34): Thank you very much for the question. There is no doubt that it is incredibly important for our local councils to have certainty. I think what happened over the last 10 years is that there was no certainty because those opposite needed a colour coded spreadsheet to actually deal with any applications from councils. We have 546 local councils across the country. What we saw was councils spending time and money applying for grants and they were never assessed on their merits because you guys needed a colour coded spreadsheet. You know that councils have limited budgets, and what you did to them was put them through a process where they expended money, they expended ratepayers money, expecting they'd have a fair and transparent process and you never delivered one. Honourable members interj ecting— The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will resume her seat. Mr Pasin interjecting— The SPEAKER: The member for Barker, I'm trying to hear from the Leader of the Opposition on a point of order! Mr Dutton: Mr Speaker, on relevance. Firstly, thank you for allowing this minister to speak. It's a great insight. The SPEAKER: What's the point of order? Mr Dutton: It refers to the minister's admission yesterday that the Growing Regions Program funding guidelines haven't been finalised for 10 months. Can she please go to that part of the question? The SPEAKER: Resume your seat. Honourable members interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order! The question was directed to the minister for local government. She's answering the question. She's had a preamble. I'm going to ask her to— Opposition members interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left! I'm going to give her the call in continuation. Ms McBAIN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. It's incredibly important that we engage local councils. What we've done, the first time ever, is we've actually invited local government associations, we've invited local councils to have input into the guidelines. Mr Pasin interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Barker. Ms McBAIN: We take collaboration with our local government sector seriously. This is a program that was announced in October, because those opposite rorted the Building Better Regions Fund so much that the whole program became tainted. We've announced $1 billion over three years in two specific programs. We've consulted with local government. We are working with them because they are a trusted delivery partner of our federal government. Mr Pasin interjecting— The SPEAKER: The member for Barker is now officially warned.