Senator WONG (South Australia—Minister for Finance and Deregulation) (14:00): It is interesting, is it not, in a week when we will be debating the minerals resource rent tax and on the day on which the government, on the basis of the announcements made— Senator Cormann: Mr President, I rise on a point of order relating to the requirement to be directly relevant. As much as I would like to ask the minister a series of questions on the mining tax, this is very clearly not a question about the mining tax. So for the minister to start answering the question by talking about the MRRT is clearly the minister not being directly relevant to the question. I would ask you to direct the minister to be directly relevant to the question asked. The PRESIDENT: There is no point of order. The minister has been going for only 12 seconds and has one minute 48 remaining. I am listening closely to the minister's answer. Senator WONG: I was making the point about the choice of the question. I am happy to get to the question, but it does say something when one of the opposition's economic spokespeople in the Senate, in this week when we are debating the minerals tax and when announcements have been made by the crossbenches, wants to talk about modelling on legislation which has already been passed. I turn now to President Obama's statement and to the misstatement that we can again see in Senator Cormann's proposition to me—a proposition Senator Cormann has made over and over again. He was told in Senate estimates some time ago that what he was putting was wrong, but he does not listen because it does not suit his argument. He was told that it was wrong to suggest that the Treasury modelling of the government's plan depends on the United States putting a price on carbon by 2016. Would the senator like me to repeat that again? He is wrong to assert that Treasury modelling of the government's plan depends on the United States putting a price on carbon by 2016. It is the same proposition he put over and over again in Senate estimates in a desperate attempt to drum up some alternative response from Treasury officials, who continue to say, 'We can grow our economy, we can grow jobs, we can increase our incomes and we can reduce emissions from what they would otherwise be with a carbon price.' But yet again we see Senator Cormann, like a dog with a bone, trundling out the same old arguments and the same old lies.