Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2025-2026, Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2025-2026 and Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 2) 2025-2026, which, for the purpose of this debate, I will refer to collectively as the additional appropriation bills. At their core these additional appropriation bills are a blank cheque for yet another round of Labor government spending on top of an already bloated budget in deficit. The Albanese Labor government is the highest spending government outside of a pandemic in 40 years. That means they are the highest spending government outside of a pandemic in my lifetime.

While the opposition will not stand in the way of government funding, that doesn't mean that we are going to stay silent about what this spending in these appropriation bills means. We will not oppose these bills. We will not delay these bills. But that cooperation should not be mistaken for a waiver of scrutiny or accountability, because Australians want to understand exactly what is going wrong under this government, and they only need to look at where the money is going to figure out why. The fastest way to understand the failures of this government in terms of its economic management and its budget management is to follow the money through these additional appropriation bills that we are debating here today. When you do that, a very clear pattern begins to emerge.

Taken together, these three bills add more than $22 billion to spending in a single financial year. Appropriation Bill (No. 3) alone loads around $12 billion onto the budget, while Appropriation Bill (No. 4) adds close to $10 billion more on top of what was already approved at the budget last year. Even the parliamentary departments bill adds hundreds of millions of dollars in extra funding. Let's be very clear. This is not fine-tuning. This is not restraint. This is a government that cannot keep its spending promises to Australia. This is a government that has a spending problem. This is a government that is unable to exercise fiscal discipline to try and get its budget under control. The largest increases in funding are the result not of new priorities announced at the budget but of substantial revisions to the government's original spending estimates, which demonstrates just how far those projections have shifted within a single financial year. Each of those decisions might be defensible in isolation, but, taken together, they tell a very clear story about a government collecting record revenue but spending record amounts and still running record deficits.

This is why inflation remains entrenched throughout the economy, why interest rates are remaining high for longer and why Australian families are paying more at the supermarket and more on their mortgages. Just last week, we saw the 14th interest rate rise under the Albanese Labor government. We know that inflation is being grown at home. Yes, there are concerns about what is happening currently in the Middle East, and, that will undoubtedly have an inflationary impact on our economy as we see petrol prices go through the roof. But the reality is that this government was overspending long before then and that that overspending was contributing to inflation. The RBA have said that themselves. That is why it is time for this government to take responsibility and admit that it has a spending problem.

These bills that we are debating here today do not show a government in control of spending. They do not show a government that can exercise fiscal discipline and make the hard decisions around the cabinet table. These bills show a government that is lifting its spending limits first and confronting the fiscal impact later. Despite collecting record levels of revenue from Australian taxpayers, the government is delivering record spending and continuing to run large deficits. That places the budget in a vulnerable position when productivity growth remains weak and revenue gains are not being driven by stronger underlying economic performance. In particular, it places the budget in a vulnerable position when we are dealing with external factors beyond our control, as we currently are with the national fuel crisis as a result of the conflict in the Middle East. That reality completely shatters this government's carefully crafted narrative.

I note that the Treasurer, Dr Chalmers, talked about restraint. He has said, or at least backgrounded publicly, that the upcoming budget in May will be one where government spending gets under control. But, as I've said previously, I have serious doubts about this government's ability to do that. You only need to look at their track record to know that they can't exercise fiscal discipline, and nothing in these bills or the broader budget resembles restraint in practice. The Treasurer has been telling Australians that the government has found savings and is exercising restraint, but, if that were true in any meaningful sense, the government wouldn't be here today asking parliament to authorise more than $22 billion in additional spending. You cannot credibly claim restraint while simultaneously lifting your own spending limits halfway through the year. Any savings that the Treasurer talks about have clearly been more than swallowed up by new and higher spending, because otherwise these bills simply wouldn't be necessary. The government isn't just asking for more money; it is conceding that its original deficit and spending projections were not credible.

The consequences of that disconnect are now being felt across the entire economy. Inflation in Australia is not a mystery. It's not an accident. It is a direct result of deliberate government spending choices. Australians are experiencing inflation in their daily lives because of this government's budget decisions and this government's inability to get its own spending under control. Australians pay for it when they fill their trolley at the supermarket, when they open their power bill and when they try to make their mortgage payment each month. These inflationary pressures flow directly through to higher interest rates, leaving families paying more not just today but for years to come. This is the true cost of the Albanese Labor government's spending addiction. Australians are paying more today through higher prices and higher mortgages. Future generations, Australians my age and younger, will be left to shoulder higher debt because this government refuses to live within its means. It seems abundantly unfair that, at a time when all Australians are tightening their own budgetary belts, this government seems incapable of doing the same.

In conclusion, again, these additional appropriation bills aren't a technical adjustment; they are a clear admission that the government's spending has once again exceeded its own promises. While the opposition is not going to stand in the way of funding government services, we are not going to simply pass these bills through this place today without calling out the consequences of the choices of this government and the consequences within these bills.