Bob Debus (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

There is not a $50 million cut in the budget. The actual efficiency dividend will be worth around $13½ million. We are not talking about $50 million; we are talking about $13½ million. Indeed, there are other, new funds within the budget for Customs—for instance, funds to better check containers in small regional ports like Darwin, Launceston, Newcastle and Townsville. So the reality is, and I have been so advised by Customs, that they do not expect to have any diminution of their operations as a consequence of the budget that has been brought down. I say again: the honourable member has rather frequently claimed during the last several months that there is a $51 million cut—I think he says it is 3.4 per cent—but that is simply not so. As I have said, the essence of the cut, so far as the efficiency dividend is concerned—and there are several other small changes—is that most of the changes that have occurred in the allocations relate to what are technically called changes in the funding profile of existing measures. They are not cuts.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Portfolio

Proposed expenditure, $1,935,213,000

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