Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Walsh for her question and, again, for her support for important national cultural institutions here in the territory that, as Senator Walsh said, house and protect our national stories and culture.

Labor's budget in October last year was the first step in cleaning up the budget mess left behind by the former government—a mess left by a tricky former government that deceptively trapped the budget with $4.1 billion worth of fiscal traps and funding cliffs for essential programs and zombie measures. Since then, we've only uncovered more evidence of these traps, these funding cliffs for programs that Australians rely on and treasure. We've also uncovered chronic underinvestment in the key cultural institutions that Australians treasure and are crumbling around us—literally crumbling. And those opposite did nothing. Those collecting institutions are there to make sure the most precious items of the Australian story are kept safe, kept publicly available and kept safe forever.

But the previous government did not intend to keep these precious items safe or intact forever; the previous government only intended to care for them until 30 June this year. What did they then do after that, I wonder? Just let the gallery sink into the lake? Let the tarp on the roof of the library stay there forever, flapping in the breeze? Additional funding runs out for the Maritime Museum on 30 June, for the Portrait Gallery on 30 June, for the National Museum on 30 June, for the Bundanon Trust on 30 June, for the National Film and Sound Archive on 30 June, for the National Gallery on 30 June, for the National Library on 30 June and for Old Parliament House on 30 June. Then we have other programs, which I no doubt will come to in my next answer to one of Senator Walsh's excellent questions.