Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Western Sydney mum Kate has told the ABC that her family are now having to rely on a community pantry to make ends meet, saying she has 'relied pretty heavily on them in the past couple of years'. Meanwhile, last year the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spent $17,930 on a Kylie Minogue impersonator at a Wellington food festival. Prime Minister, when Australians are tightening their belts, why can't this Labor government?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lindsay for her question, and it goes to Kate being concerned about costs of living. We share that concern, which is why we're doing everything we can to help people like Kate—the energy bill relief, the cheaper batteries, the cheaper medicines, the free TAFE, making sure that tax cuts are put in place and the urgent care clinics, including many that are in Western Sydney.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Lyne is now warned.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member also refers to waste. I hope that, if she does know Kate, she tells Kate about the $31 billion in cost blowouts associated with Inland Rail and the $29 billion in cost blowouts for the NBN. At least something was being created there, but we actually paid the French $4 billion to cancel—to not build the submarines. We paid $1.8 billion out to victims of robodebt. We paid $444 million to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation without a tender process or even consultation with the foundation itself. We spent $660 million on commuter carparks, including where there was no railway station.

There was $423 million on an offshore processing contract awarded to a firm registered to a shack on Kangaroo Island. Now, I'm very affectionate about Kangaroo Island these days—but $423 million for a shack registered to a company there? There was $100 million on sports rorts funding based on the colour coded spreadsheet; $70 million on a COVIDSafe app that found only two unique positive COVID cases; $30 million for the Western Sydney airport land—remember that, 10 times its value?—and, of course, during COVID, the $20 billion of JobKeeper paid to companies who were increasing their profits, not having it decreased.

When we talk about waste, the Liberal Party are the experts.