Senator EGGLESTON (3:18 PM) —What we are seeing this afternoon is a trawling exercise carried out by a desperate opposition with no policies and no programs. They are trying to besmirch the names of two of the most successful ministers in the parliament. The poor old ALP over there have not got anything going for them, and so they have to sink down to these sorts of gutter tactics—trawling around looking for a bit of mud to throw. Senator Conroy is hanging his head in shame and leaving the chamber because he knows it is true.

The process which was gone through to fund the Federation and Cultural Heritage Projects Program was very open and transparent. Applications were called for on 30 June 1998. The task group's assessment began on 13 July and was completed on 13 August. The National Council for the Centenary of Federation provided its advice to the ministers on 7 August. The Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts sent a minute to the ministers on 14 August, along with copies of all applications and the task group's evaluations. The ministers forwarded a list of their recommended projects to the Prime Minister on 27 August. A letter dated 30 August was sent to the ministers, advising them of the PM's approval. That is all pretty straightforward.

Let us look at the criteria and process. There were 741 applications. The projects were evaluated by a task group made up of officers of DOCITA and the Department of the Environment and Heritage. The projects were judged against six criteria: significance, lasting nature, appropriateness for the Centenary of Federation, benefits to the broad community, good management capability, and partnerships in funding. The projects were scored. They were given four points for each of those six criteria, leading to a possible score of 24. Far from 16 projects not meeting the minimum criteria, in fact 60 projects were successful and eligible to be considered. The story which appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on 11 August, under the by-line of Mike Seccombe, was very wrong and very misleading. Whoever leaked the information to him should have checked it out first, because it was wrong.

In making their final decisions, as well as taking into account the evaluations of the task group and the national council, the ministers took into account the need to fund a balance of cultural and heritage projects, a balance of projects in each state and territory, and a balance of projects in inner metropolitan, outer metropolitan and regional areas. Ministers were not provided with a list of recommended projects; rather, they were provided with all the information so they could select worthwhile projects, taking these objectives into account. That is what they did. It is true that some of the projects were announced during the election campaign, but that is not a breach of the caretaker conventions.

Senator Carr —Of course it is!

Senator EGGLESTON —Of course it is not. That is absolute nonsense, Senator Carr. You know it is not in breach. You are desperately picking up a little bit of mud and flinging it, but it is not going to stick because it is not a breach of the caretaker conventions which state that significant decisions should not be made during a campaign. These decisions were made before the caretaker period came into effect and were merely announced during the caretaker period.

What we have here is a trawling exercise by an opposition which, when in government, did almost nothing for the environment and nothing for natural heritage—it failed to reverse land and water degradation, it failed to do anything about the decline in biodiversity and it failed to prevent the spread of weeds and of feral animals such as foxes, goats, cats and cane toads. It basically neglected both the environment and natural heritage.

The money from the Building Better Cities program went to the cities because that is where the problems were. The money from the environmental programs has gone to the country areas and country electorates because that is where the problems are. I hope and pray that during the rest of this session the opposition will do a little bit better than it has done on this issue, trawling around, trying to make an issue out of nothing. (Time expired)