To the Treasurer: the government has fast-tracked significant legislation that will pay the Labor Party, on current numbers, $2.7 million per year for administration assistance funding. That includes staff costs, attendance at conferences and seminars, office accommodation and even payment for interest on its loans. Do you accept that the government has failed to acknowledge any economies of scale and that this is poor economic management of public funds and an outrageous slap in the face for Australians doing it tough?

Of course I don't agree with those characterisations. Public funding of elections and of our democracy has been an ongoing feature of our system for some time. What we're trying to do, via the great work of Minister Farrell and others, is to minimise the impact of big money on our politics. That's our motivation here, and that's what the legislation is all about.