Senator WONG (South Australia—Minister for Finance and Deregulation) (14:12): I thank Senator Cormann for the question. I do not know how I have managed for the last six weeks without questions from Senator Cormann, but I struggled through! In terms of the MRRT, as you know, Mr President, I previously advised Senator Cormann that the forward estimate projections for the MRRT revenue are $13.4 billion. That was a revision down from the previous— Senator Cormann: Mr President, I rise on a point of order. It goes to the requirement for the minister to be directly relevant to the question. I asked the minister a very specific question, which was: how much has the government collected in MRRT revenue in the month of July? There is only one answer to that question that can be directly relevant, and that is a dollar figure in relation to the revenue collected in the month of July. If the minister does not know the answer, she should just say so. The PRESIDENT: There is no point of order. I believe the minister is answering the question. The minister has one minute and 30 seconds remaining. Senator WONG: As I was going on to say, in the last budget we updated and revised the MRRT revenue to $13.4 billion over the forward estimates. As Senator Cormann well knows from questions in this place and in Senate estimates, the government acknowledges that the revenue take from the MRRT obviously depends on a range of factors such as commodity prices, exchange rates and production volumes. By virtue of being a profit based tax, it is obviously more volatile than other types of revenue. In terms of the quantum, the senator knows that I release monthly statements of the budget. Those are released every month from the preceding month, and he can consider those statements when they are released and made public, as is usually the case. I make this point about the position that Senator Cormann asserts. Senator Brandis: Mr President, I raise a point of order on direct relevance. The minister has just told us that she is not going to provide the figure which is the subject of the question. She is now making comment on what she calls the 'position' Senator Cormann asserts. Senator Cormann asserts no position. He merely makes an inquiry which the minister has told us that she is not able to respond to today. Nothing more can be relevant—directly or indirectly. The PRESIDENT: There is no point of order. The minister is answering the question and she does have 25 seconds. I am listening closely to the minister's answer. The minister has 25 seconds remaining to answer the question. Senator WONG: We got to sooky la-la pretty quickly, didn't we? As soon as anybody starts talking about them— The PRESIDENT: Minister, come to the question. Senator WONG: up jumps George, saying, 'Oh no, don't talk about us! We don't want you to talk about us!' The PRESIDENT: Order, Minister! Come to the question! Senator WONG: Thank you, Mr President. You can't have it both ways. You cannot say, 'The mining tax doesn't collect any revenue but will also simultaneously kill the mining industry.' That is the hypocrisy of the other side. The PRESIDENT: Order! That is debating the issue. Minister, I draw your attention to the question. You have got seven seconds remaining. Have you finished, Minister? Senator WONG: Thank you, Mr President.