Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Siewert for her question. One of the reasons why the government have been working extremely hard on budget repair is to make sure that we as a government are in a position to fund and support that which is the core business of government. I know from my previous portfolio that an important part of the core business of government is providing support to people who face extra challenges, often for reasons beyond their control. What that means is we want to make sure that we are in a position to fully fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme. What that means is we want make sure we are a position to continue, as we all want to continue, to have a good and generous social safety net in terms of age pensions, disability support pensions and Newstart benefits.

Government has to make sure that it has a sustainable budget and that it is repairing its budget so that, in the long term, it can continue to be in a position to support those important things, which, as I say—