Peter Hendy (Eden-Monaro, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In my role as Assistant Minister for Finance, I would like to thank all members who have contributed to the debate on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2015-2016 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2015-2016. These additional estimates appropriation bills seek authority from the parliament for the additional expenditure of money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund for this financial year. I would like to highlight six areas relating to the delivery of the government's commitments that are supported by these bills.

First, these bills would provide the Department of Immigration and Border Protection with just over $447 million. This reflects additional funding for enhancing the management of the onshore immigration detention network, further support for refugee resettlement arrangements and additional support for the accommodation and processing of asylum seekers.

The Social Services portfolio would receive just over $277 million. The Department of Social Services would receive just over $102 million, primarily to provide support services to resettle an additional 12,000 refugees who are fleeing the conflict in Syria and Iraq. The National Disability Insurance Agency would receive just over $108 million for the transition to the full National Disability Insurance Scheme, as agreed with New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. The Department of Human Services would also receive just over $11 million for addressing welfare reliance in remote communities program, which will provide increased incentives for job seekers to work and to strengthen the mutual obligation framework in Community Development Program regions.

The Department of Defence would receive just over $186 million, largely reflecting supplementation for foreign exchange movements and the net effect of the reallocation of funds between operating and capital costs.

The Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development would receive just over $385 million reflecting, primarily, additional funding for the Roads to Recovery program to help local government and councils maintain Australia's roads.

The Department of Health would receive $125 million to be used as capital by the Biomedical Translation Fund following its establishment. The fund will be used to invest in promising medical discoveries and will complement the Medical Research Future Fund through the commercialisation of health and medical research.

Finally, the Australian Taxation Office would receive just over $74 million, largely for implementing single-touch payroll reporting and for improvements to data and analytics infrastructure.

The total of the appropriations being sought through these two appropriation bills is just over $2.2 billion.

Once again, I thank all members for their contribution and commend these two bills to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

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