Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

I've given this answer to other senators and yourself. The legislation before the chamber asks senators to make a decision, essentially. To paraphrase it—you have the legislation in front of you—it's essentially an in-principle decision: should we allow DHA to do work of this kind? The Senate is not being asked to approve budgets, nor is it being offered the opportunity to scrutinise budgets; the Senate makes a very particular allocation of time for that task, and when we do that we bring the relevant officials to the table through the Senate estimates process. I encourage you to focus your questions and contributions on the legislation before us rather than a wider-ranging discussion about the budget, which is more appropriately conducted at budget estimates.