ADJOURNMENT

Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for Finance, Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Women, Minister for Government Services and Manager of Government Business in the Senate) (19:51): I stand to clarify an answer I gave in question time earlier today to Senator David Pocock. I said in public statements, in media statements, we were clear that the election commitments would be delivered through a closed noncompetitive process.

Following question time, I went to check the record to make sure that that was consistent with what I said and it wasn't, so I'm here to clarify that, in the media statements that we included with our local commitments, we used the term 'Consistent with past practice, election commitments will be delivered in line with the Commonwealth grants, rules and principles, which, at section 2.4, indicate how those grant rules should apply, including for the delivery of election commitments as a result of competitive or non-competitive selection processes or on a one-off ad hoc basis.' I just wanted to update the Senate at the earliest opportunity and clarify those remarks.