Joyce, Sen Barnaby

Senator JOYCE (Queensland—Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) (14:19): My question is to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Senator Wong. I refer the minister to the answer given by Mr David Tune, Secretary of the Department of Finance and Deregulation, that the 'expected sale of assets from the Future Fund was included in the figure for the sale of non-financial assets', in the budget. As the net cashflows from investments in non-financial assets form part of the surplus in statement No. 9 of the budget's financial statements, is the minister able to tell us whether the sale of Future Fund assets will decrease, increase or in any way affect the government's $3.5 billion surplus forecast for 2012-13?