Senator WOODLEY (8:58 PM) —I will make a couple of quick comments to enlighten the minister. The reason I was saying that the government might come back with a slightly different amendment was that the government committee members themselves in the Senate report came up with a fairly complicated formula to arrive at the $80,000. I thought that the government might be attracted to the idea of supporting its own members in the Senate committee along those lines. I am quite happy to put the simpler proposition that I have put in my request, which is the same as Senator Harris's request. I am quite happy to do that. I was just making an offer to the government. Senator Forshaw is not quite correct in saying that I reduced the amount from $100,000 to $80,000 because I was worried about the costs.

Senator Forshaw —I never said that.

Senator WOODLEY —Didn't you?

Senator Forshaw —I said that you were able to quickly draw a line and then change it.

Senator WOODLEY —I see. I thought it might be useful to explain how I arrived at the $100,000. I prepared the instructions for that amendment before I had the committee report. You will remember that we were doing it all in a bit of a rush last week. I was simply trying to second-guess or arrive at something near the amount the Western Australian farmers needed. I worked off Tony Ferraro's comments, but I thought: why not go with that which the government members themselves have put forward as something that the government could support? That was for a cap of $80,000. I arrived at that figure in support of those government members.

Request, as amended, not agreed to.