As Australia grapples with extended drought across the country – in many places, the worst on record – the Coalition has been talking up its $7bn drought package in support of “struggling farming families”.

Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon has called it the “most audacious lie” he has ever heard in politics, saying very little of the $7bn is actually hitting the ground in drought-affected communities.

After initially refusing to provide a breakdown of the figure, the government has now provided Guardian Australia with details.

Where does the $7bn figure come from?

Most of the $7bn has not been spent. The bulk of the $7bn figure is attributable to the government’s $5bn Future Drought Fund, which passed the parliament in July.

The government established the fund with an initial $3.9bn credit, which was reallocated from an infrastructure fund set up by Labor called the Building Australia Fund.

Earnings from the fund, which will be managed like the Medical Research Future Fund, will be reinvested into the drought fund until the balance reaches $5bn, which is expected to be achieved in 2028-29.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, said the fund would ensure “money aside for non-rainy days in the future”.

What is the $5bn Future Drought Fund being spent on?

Nothing as yet.

The fund starts making disbursements from 1 July next year, with $100m being made each year to support Australian farmers and communities to become more prepared for, and resilient to, the effects of drought.

The minister for the drought, David Littleproud, said the fund was for the future, in the good years and the bad years.

“This is about foresight of drought policy in this country, saying: we need to look to the future and we need to underpin that with money.”

The government is preparing the Drought Resilience Funding Plan, which is a “rolling four-year high level framework” that will guide which drought resilience projects are funded.

What about the rest of the $7bn figure?

Littleproud said the future fund was in addition to $2bn being spent “in the here and now”.

Most of the remaining figure is attributed to $1bn in loans provided by the Regional Investment Corporation.

Dubbed “Barnaby’s bank” when it was established in 2018, the RIC has, as of April, received 97 applications and granted $69m in loans to farmers in need in rural and regional communities across Australia.

The next biggest spending figure is $750m for the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund, which provides funding to state governments.

Details of the projects that have been funded under this scheme can be found here.

The figure also includes assistance that has gone directly to farmers, including $50m through the on-farm emergency water infrastructure rebate scheme, $183m through farm household allowance payments, $5m for rural financial counselling, and $130m for the drought communities program that gives grants to councils dealing with drought.

Other measures include $3.1m for destocking, $15m for wild dog fencing and other pest and weed management, and $15m for a rural and regional renewal foundation.

Tax concessions for farmers affected by drought, including accelerated fodder storage asset depreciation account for $75m of the figure.

The government is also including funding for Bureau of Meteorology radars ($77m), Great Artesian Basin funding ($23m), regional weather and climate guides ($2.7m) and the National Drought Map ($4.2m) in the drought package figure.

A telehealth measure for empowering communities is costing $26.9m and the Country Women’s Association of Australia has received an additional $5m.

The Joint Agency Drought Taskforce, which was established within the prime minster’s office and led by major general Stephen Day, cost taxpayers $5.6m.

Day’s report has not been released.

According to the 2019-20 budget, rural assistance spending between 2018-2019 and 2022-23 totals $1.6bn.

Of this, $336m was spent last year.

But the budget papers show the amount was expected to decrease by 13% in real terms from 2018-19 to 2019-20, and decrease by 22.4% in real terms over the period 2019-20 to 2022-23.

While $336m was spent last year, this was budgeted to fall to $299m in 2019-20. It climbs again to an estimated $380m next year and $249m the year after that.

According to the budget papers, the initial decrease from 2018-19 to 2019-20 mainly reflects the cessation of additional assistance through the Farm Household Allowance, including the Special Drought Supplement, which was announced in last year’s midyear economic and financial outlook.

The subsequent decrease from 2019-20 to 2022-23 mainly relates to the profile of expenses for concessional loans through the Regional Investment Corporation for both the north Queensland flood recovery effort and drought assistance.

Is that it?

Last week, the government announced an extra $100m for drought-hit communities, which it said was “on top of more than $7bn in drought support funding already provided by the government”.

As part of this, 13 extra local government areas will be provided up to $1m for local infrastructure and drought relief products, bringing the total number of councils to receive assistance up to 123.

The latest round of funding has proven controversial given one south-west Victorian council, Moyne Shire, received the $1m boost despite not being in drought.

Councillor Colin Ryan said the area was not drought-affected.

“We don’t need the money for drought reasons and I believe it should be redirected to more deserving areas of Australia,” he told ABC radio.

Littleproud has now asked for an audit of the selection criteria, but has defended the process, saying it is based on drought mapping by the Bureau of Meteorology.

“I’ll be asking for a forensic audit by the bureau to make sure that data collection was right, but that’s the science we predicate our decisions on,” he said.

Morrison said the government was happy to accept criticism for being “too generous”.

“If we’re being accused of being too supportive, too generous, too much on the front foot in helping rural districts when it comes to supporting them in the drought, well I’m happy to take that criticism because we are on the front foot when it comes to helping our rural communities,” Morrison said.