Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Science, Jobs and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That these bills be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speeches read as follows—

A ppropriation Bill (No . 1) 2018 -2019

Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2018-2019, together with Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2018-2019 and Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2018-2019, form the principal bills underpinning the government's budget.

Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2018-2019 seeks approval for appropriations from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of just over $95 billion.

I now outline the significant items provided for in this bill.

First, the Department of Defence will receive approximately $32 billion to keep our nation safe and pursue our national interests. This includes around $750 million for major Defence operations including Operations OKRA, ACCORDION, HIGHROAD, RESOLUTE, MANITOU and AUGURY - PHILIPPINES.

Second, the Department of Health will receive just over $10.4 billion, including approximately $97 million for establishing the Commonwealth Health Workforce Strategy and around $22 million for strengthening health provider compliance and expanding the Medicare compliance program, the Practitioner Review Program and the Professional Service Review Scheme.

Third, the Department of Social Services will receive approximately $8.5 billion, which will primarily be used to fund the ongoing implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), as well as the establishment of a Jobs and Market Fund to promote the growth of the disability services market, and a Continuity of Support Fund to ensure people with a disability who are not eligible for the NDIS continue to receive support consistent with their current arrangements.

Fourth, the Department of Home Affairs will receive just over $4.2 billion, which includes around $50 million to strengthen aviation, air cargo and international mail security and approximately $45 million to maintain Australia's border security through Operation Sovereign Borders.

Details of the proposed expenditure are set out in the schedule to the bill and the portfolio budget statements tabled in the parliament.

A ppropriation B ill (N o . 2) 2018 -2019

Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2018-2019, along with Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2018-2019and Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2018-2019, are the budget appropriation bills for this financial year.

This bill seeks approval for appropriations from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of just over $13 billion.

I now outline the significant items provided for in this bill.

First, the Department of Communications and the Arts will receive just over $5 billion. This will be used to provide NBN Co. with a government loan on commercial terms to support the completion of the National Broadband Network.

Second, the Department of Defence will receive just over $3 billion to enable the purchase of military equipment and the construction of support facilities, as announced in the 2016 Defence White Paper.

Third, the Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities will receive approximately $2.4 billion, including equity investment for the delivery of Western Sydney Airport and Inland Rail, and concessional loan funding for Stage 2 of the WestConnex project.

Details of the proposed expenditure are set out in the schedules to the bill and the portfolio budget statements tabled in the parliament.

A ppropriation (P arliamentary D epartments ) B ill (N o . 1) 2018 -2019

Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2018-2019 provides appropriations for 2018-19 for the operations of:

This bill seeks approval for appropriations from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of just under $250 million.

The Department of Parliamentary Services will receive approximately $193 million. This includes $2.9 million for the establishment of a Cyber Security Operations Centre for the Australian Parliament House, which will enhance cyber security for the parliamentary computer network.

Details of the proposed expenditure are set out in the schedule to the bill and the portfolio budget statements tabled in the parliament.

A ppropriation B ill (No . 5) 2017-18

Today, the government introduces the supplementary additional estimates appropriation bills. These bills are:

These bills underpin the government's expenditure decisions.

Appropriation Bill (No. 5) 2017-2018 seeks approval for additional appropriations from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of approximately $1.7 billion in 2017-18.

I now outline the significant items provided for in this bill.

First, this bill will provide the Department of Defence with just under $948 million to better align available Defence Integrated Investment Program funding with Defence capability project operational requirements.

Second, the Department of Environment and Energy will receive just under $435 million to continue to deliver the Reef 2050 Long Term Sustainability Plan, designed to protect, and improve, the health of the Great Barrier Reef, and to support world-first research.

Third, the Department of Education and Training will receive just over $167 million. This includes funding to implement the Research Infrastructure Investment Plan, informed by the 2016 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap.

Details of the proposed expenditure are set out in the schedule to the bill and the portfolio supplementary additional estimates statements tabled in the parliament.

I commend this bill.

A ppropriation Bill (No . 6) 2017-18

Appropriation Bill (No. 6) 2017-2018, along with Appropriation Bill (No. 5) 2017-2018, which I introduced earlier, are the supplementary additional estimates appropriation bills for this financial year.

This bill seeks further approval for appropriations from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of just over $6.2 billion for 2017-18.

The majority of the amount in the bill relates to the Department of Environment and Energy, which will receive approximately $6 billion to facilitate the Australian government's purchase of the New South Wales and Victorian governments' shares in Snowy Hydro Limited. The purchase will build on the government's reforms to ensure reliable and affordable energy for businesses and households.

This bill will also provide the Department of Home Affairs with just over $94 million to upgrade its risk assessment and identity management ICT capabilities.

Details of the proposed expenditure are set out in the schedule to the bill and the portfolio supplementary additional estimate statements tabled in the parliament.

I commend this bill.

Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2018-2019 and related bills. These bills provide appropriations from the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the annual services of the government for 2018-19 and for the remainder of 2017-18, and facilitate the implementation of a number of 2018-19 budget measures. A total of around $108 billion is sought for the 2018-19 financial year and around $7.9 billion for the remainder of the 2017-2018 financial year. These amounts are already incorporated into the budget bottom line, as presented in the 2018-19 budget. The Labor Party will support supply.

This budget is just like every other Liberal budget in that it fails the fairness test. The Liberal's budget looks after big business at the expense of people who work and who struggle. The budget gives an $80 billion tax handout to big business, including $17 billion for the big banks, at the same time as it hits schools and hospitals with savage cuts. The Liberal's budget is sneaky and unfair, and all the old nasties are in it—not only cuts to schools and hospitals but also plans to axe the energy supplement for pensioners and some of the most vulnerable people in our community, plus increasing the pension age to 70.

Any budget that gives an approximately $80 tax handout to business big, while cutting from schools, hospitals and pensioners, is an unfair budget. The only way to protect schools, hospitals and pensioners is to kick those opposite at the next election. The Liberals say they want to deliver tax relief for low- and middle-income Australians, but their income tax plan held those people hostage to tax cuts at the high end of the income scale. Those tax cuts, which won't come in until 2022 and 2024, will cost the budget $122 billion over the next 10 years. This is a huge hit on the budget—and many things can change between now and then.

The Grattan Institute—and, in particular, Mr John Daley—made a submission to the Senate inquiry, arguing that the tax cuts should not be legislated more than a year or two in the future and that supporting stages 2 and 3 leaves the budget less able to respond to shocks that may emerge over the coming years. In particular, the submission said:

Six or seven years is a very long time and, economically, the chances of a significant economic downturn over the next six or seven years are pretty large … we do not think it is prudent to be providing tax cuts of this magnitude that far in the future—certainly not to be legislating them—when there are so many economic uncertainties between now and then. And there is no need to legislate them.

We know that stage 3 of the government tax cuts will become the most expensive. They're the fastest-growing stage of the package and they are the most unfair. Thanks to Labor, we know from information provided for the Senate by the Parliamentary Budget Office that stage 3 of the government tax cuts is set to grow at a staggering 12 per cent per year. Stage 3, which is heavily skewed towards higher income earners, begins in 2014-15, about the same time as the government's company tax cuts flow to big businesses at an annual cost of at least $15 billion a year. Taken together, if implemented, the government stage 3 tax cuts and company tax cuts for big businesses will cost them a budget of at least $25 billion a year by the end of the medium term.

The government has not only failed the fairness test set by Labor and the community but it also failed the fiscal responsibility test for itself. The Liberal Party used to rail against debt and deficit and now there's barely a peep from them. On the back of the best global economic conditions in more than a decade, net debt for the coming year is double what it was when the Liberals came to office. Gross debt, which crashed through half a trillion dollars on their watch for the first time in history, will remain well above half a trillion dollars every year for the next decade. Both types of debt are growing faster under this government than under the previous Labor government, which had a global financial crisis to contend with. This year's deficit, for 2017-18, is 6½ times bigger than the Liberals' predicted in their first horror budget of 2014.

Labor's approach to the budget is fairer for middle Australia and the most vulnerable in the community and more responsible when it comes to budget repair. Our plan will deliver lower taxes for 10 million working Australians through a bigger, better and fairer tax cut. Our tax refund for working Australians will provide almost double the tax relief being offered by the government. Labor's plan will see those earning up to $125,000 a year paying less tax than they would under the Liberals. More than four million people will get a tax cut of $928 a year. We will deliver extra funding for public hospitals and 20 new MRI machines to regional centres in outer suburbs. We will abolish Turnbull's cap on university places and abolish up-front fees for 100,000 TAFE places in courses where we still need those skills. Labor can deliver on these commitments because, unlike Malcolm Turnbull, we won't give $80 billion in tax handouts to big business and the banks.

A Shorten Labor government will achieve a balanced budget in the same year as the government's budget. It will deliver bigger cumulative budget surpluses over the forward estimates, as well as substantially bigger surpluses over the 10-year medium term, and will put the majority of the savings raised from our revenue measures over the medium term towards budget repair and paying down debt. A Shorten Labor government will also be guided by clear fiscal principles. These include repairing the budget in a fair way that doesn't ask the most vulnerable to carry the heaviest burden; more than offsetting new spending with savings and revenue improvements; and we will bank changes in receipt and payments from changes in the economy—parameter variations—to the bottom line if this impact is positive. Because Labor has made tough and big calls on tax reforms—and I can list some of them: negative gearing, capital gains tax, trusts, dividend imputation refundability and multinational tax avoidance—to close loopholes to those who least need them, we will have a debt reduction plan that is superior to that of the Liberals. Our plan is fairer and more responsible, because we've made the big calls and we've got them right.

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the appropriations bills. Commonly known as the budget, the appropriations bills should fund the government's vision of how Australia should be into the future. Unfortunately, the vision the government has outlined in its budget is myopic. It makes the tax system less progressive, provides greater returns to those who are already better off and gives huge corporate tax cuts to the big end of town. The government pretends they're promising Australians the same service into the future, but how can that be when they're trying to deliver them with less funding and a smaller revenue base?

The budget is a total con job. Its numbers are flimsy, its promises are overcooked and it's based on an ideology that wants to provide the least assistance to Australians in need. It's a selfish budget and it's an unfair budget. More importantly, it fails to address the problems of our society that we need to solve. Housing, health care and education are all neglected in the budget. As a result, the millions of Australians who are having difficulty affording housing and health care or who are trying to get a decent education will continue to suffer. Included in the budget are larger tax cuts for those on higher incomes—billions of dollars of tax cuts to the disgraced banking sector and to multinationals, who we know will send the funds offshore. Everyday Australians will be harmed by the budget.

The Liberal Party has spent its time in power doing everything it can to drive down wages and cut penalty rates. Wages in Australia have stagnated. Insecure work is on the rise and full-time work is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Yet Mr Turnbull and his government think they can buy the vast majority of Australian taxpayers back with a pitiful $10 a week. Billions have been ripped out of the budget that pays for schools, hospitals and health care. These tax cuts are based on projections of unrealistic figures and were secured through dodgy side deals. As Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten said in his budget-in-reply speech:

They think for $10, you’ll forget they tried to put up your taxes last year.

For $10, you won’t care about cuts to your child’s school.

For $10, you’ll forgive waiting for elective surgery at Australia’s hospitals

That for $10, you won’t mind your internet’s no good and your local TAFE is closing or your daughter can’t find a place at uni.

They think if you get $10 a week, you won’t notice you’re losing $70 in penalty rates from your Sunday pay.

And this Prime Minister is so out of touch, he thinks if you get ten dollars a week – you’ll be fine with the banks getting a $17 billion giveaway.

How on earth can it be fair for a nurse on $40,000 to pay the same rate as a doctor on $200,000, or for a cleaner to pay the same tax rate as a CEO? How can it be fair that under this tax experiment the doctor earns five times as much as the nurse but gets a tax cut that is 16 times bigger? This is not a progressive tax system but a first step towards flat-rate taxation. Research has revealed that under this plan $6 in every $10 will go to the wealthiest 20 per cent of Australians. How's that fair, and how's that fiscally responsible?

I can assure the government that the Australian people won't be fooled. And for those senators in this place who are unable to see through this trick and were unable to stick to their principles: when your constituents come to complain about the healthcare, education or aged-care system, please remember to tell them that you ripped tens of billions of dollars out of the budget to give yourselves a $7,000-a-year tax cut. Please tell them you thought it was better that those on the highest income get thousands of dollars in tax cuts while those on the lowest get $10 a week. Truly, you should be ashamed. For those Australians on lower incomes, Mr Turnbull has a perfect solution. Mr Turnbull said that if you're a 60-year-old aged-care worker in Burnie in the electorate of Braddon you should 'get a better job'. It's clear that Mr Turnbull and his handpicked candidate for Braddon, Mr Whiteley, do not consider the work of aged-care workers important. I know that Labor's Justine Keay does. I know that she cares about aged-care workers, that she cares about their pay and conditions and that she cares about the vital services they provide to give senior Australians a higher quality of life.

The government expressed surprise at the reaction following these thoughtless comments, but what the Prime Minister should have realised is that perhaps this aged-care worker doesn't actually want to change her job. Perhaps she just wants to get better pay as a carer. Why should she have to stop caring for people and have to do a different job in order to get the sort of money that the Prime Minister thinks everyone aspires to? Perhaps—just perhaps—she aspires to better penalty rates, \ better staff-to-patient ratios in these facilities or better funding for aged care. It's clear that Mr Turnbull doesn't believe aged-care work is a good job. And if Mr Turnbull thinks his past as a corporate banker—ripping companies apart and profiteering from them—is a better job, maybe he should check his prejudices and reflect on how much good the collapse of HIH caused. I'm pretty certain the community up in Braddon don't care much for harbour-side millionaires raking in tens of millions per annum for stripping companies and sacking workers, but they are extremely thankful for the aged-care worker helping to feed, clothe and care for their elderly relatives in aged-care facilities. It is an example of how out of touch our millionaire PM is that he thinks most people can just walk into another job.

Let me give those in the government a quick lesson: most Australians are concerned by the idea of losing their jobs. It causes them anxiety because they know just how few jobs there are in their town or in their community and they worry about how they will pay their bills. And when Mr Turnbull and Mr Morrison's recklessness tanks the economy, it's these people who will suffer. The Prime Minister telling people to 'get a better job' is not helpful and just goes to show how out of touch he and his government truly are.

Here is another example of just how out of touch the Prime Minister is. At the height of the royal commission into the banks—a royal commission that has seen reckless negligence, incompetence and downright fraudulent acts by the banking sector—this Prime Minister wants to reward them with a $17 billion tax cut. The Australian people are screaming out that we should punish the banks, and Mr Turnbull's doing everything he can to reward them—once a banker always a banker. Some members of the crossbench are lining up to support the corporate tax cuts as well. Nothing says 'helping battlers' more than giving multinational companies billions of dollars more to send offshore every year! But while those opposite have trumpeted their unfair tax cuts, they have neglected to tell you a few important things about this budget.

On the back of the best global economic conditions in more than a decade, net debt for this coming year is double what it was when the Liberals came to office. Gross debt, which crashed through half a trillion dollars on their watch for the first time in history, will remain well above half a trillion dollars every year for the next decade. Both types of debt are growing faster under this government than under the previous Labor government, which had a global financial crisis to contend with. And this year's deficit is 6½ times bigger than the Liberals predicted in their first horror budget of 2014. A $715 million cut to hospitals still remains in the budget, as does the $17 billion in cuts to schools. This budget still cuts money from our universities, and it contains a very sneaky new $270 million cut to TAFE. The Prime Minister will still cut $14 from pensioners every fortnight by taking away the energy supplement, cut dental care for veterans and cut the ABC yet again. Our well respected national broadcaster is being gutted by this government just because it won't give credence to climate sceptic quacks and anti-vaxxers—if only we could do the same in this chamber!

Mr Turnbull is keeping Medicare frozen for specialist visits. He's even keeping the GST on tampons and is still increasing the retirement age to 70. So it's clear to see what this budget is about: it's about large tax cuts for those on high incomes, tax cuts for banks and cuts to schools and hospitals. It will destroy the progressive taxation system and set the Australian government up in future years to be unable to afford the required spending in health, education and aged care.

However, there is an alternative. The Australian people have an alternative. They have an alternative government that will act in the national interest, not just in the interests of the top end of town. They have an alternative government that will put fairness at the centre of its agenda.

A Labor government will go further and do better on tax cuts for working and middle-class Australians. In Labor's first budget, we will deliver a bigger, better and fairer tax cut for 10 million working Australians. That's almost double, in fact, what the government offered in the budget. This is our pledge to 10 million working Australians: under Labor you will pay less income tax, because Labor think you are more important than multinationals, big banks and big business. In Labor's first term of government, a teacher earning $65,000 will be $2,780 better off. That's an extra $928 a year. A married couple, with one serving in our Defence Force and earning $90,000 and the other working in aged care and earning $50,000, will be $5,565 better off. That's a combined $1,855 extra each year under Labor. We can afford to do more to help 10 million Australians because we're not giving $80 billion to big business and the big four banks. We can do more to help those who need it because we're not favouring the highest income earners and because we've already made the hard choices for budget repair.

Labor is creating a level playing field for first home buyers by reforming negative gearing and capital gains. We're cracking down on tax minimisation by eliminating income splitting in discretionary trusts without affecting our farmers. And we're ending unsustainable tax refunds, for people who currently pay no income tax, while protecting pensioners and charities. Labor's plan means we can deliver a winning trifecta in government, a genuine tax cut for middle- and working-class Australians. There will be proper funding for hospitals, schools and the safety net and we will pay back more of Australia's national debt faster.

Next year, total interest payments on national debt will pass $18 billion. That's $18 billion more than the Commonwealth spends on the NDIS, aged care or child care. It is about twice as much as Australia spends on public schools. The government have locked in $140 billion in tax cuts on a further $80 billion in corporate cuts and they have said not one word about reducing debt. Before the 2013 election the Liberals were screaming, positively frothing at the mouth, about debt and deficit. What do we hear about it now? Not one word. The Liberals' only strategy is to cross their fingers and hope. It's time for this parliament to be responsible. Labor will be the responsible government that the Liberal Party is unable to be. Labor's economic reforms put us in a much stronger position to cope with international uncertainty over the coming decades. We've seen that there are global downturns and that we need to have the capacity to stimulate the economy. We can pay down national debt faster than the government, which has just put its hands in the air and given up.

The whole point of government is to provide people with the services they need to build themselves a good life. The budget isn't just numbers on a page; it's a blueprint for a better society. We all know that education is one of the most important means of building a better life. I believe that every Australian child should get the life-changing opportunity of a properly funded, quality education. They need to be taught not only reading and writing but also maths, coding, science and languages. They need individual attention in the classroom and protection from bullying, be it online or in the schoolyard. I want children to discover and fall in love with what they're good at. I want every public school to be able to offer music, drama, sport and camps and to have fully resourced libraries. As a passionate advocate for reading, I want children to fall in love with reading. For that, they need a properly resourced library.

The government can announce as many education reviews as it wants. Everyone knows that cutting school funding does not deliver better results. That's why Labor will put back every dollar the Liberals have cut from schools. The government's cuts have hit public schools and their 2.5 million students the hardest. It's public schools that will benefit the most when we invest and restore the extra $17 billion over the next 10 years. The public system teaches 82 per cent of Australia's poorest kids, 84 per cent of Indigenous kids and 74 per cent of kids with disabilities. When it comes to schools, we want the very best for Australian children.

At the next election, the choice will be simple. Labor will put $17 billion extra into schools, and the Prime Minister will give $17 billion to the banks. Labor's approach to the budget is fairer for middle Australia and the most vulnerable in the community, and it will be more responsible when it comes to budget repair. Our plan will deliver lower taxes for 10 million working Australians. Labor's plan will see those who earn up to $125,000 a year paying less tax than they would under the Liberals, and more than four million people will get a tax cut of $928 a year. It's clear that the only way to protect schools, hospitals and pensioners is to change the government at the next election. The Liberals say they want to deliver tax relief for low- and middle-income Australians, but their income tax plan is holding those people hostage to tax cuts at the higher end of the income scale and way down the track.

Labor will achieve budget balance in the same year as the government and deliver bigger, cumulative budget surpluses over the forward estimates, as well as substantially bigger surpluses over the next 10 years. Unlike this reckless government, we will put the majority of savings raised from our revenue measures over the medium-term towards budget repair and paying down debt. Remarkably, this budget is pretending that wages will increase by over 13 per cent in the next four years. Given the current wages system is obviously not delivering for workers and that the government is working actively to see lower wages, it's absolutely wishful thinking to think that this goal will be met. Labor have a wages policy which will help meet this budget assumption, restore Sunday penalty rates, crack down on wage theft and address the abuse of labour hire, where companies shift permanent jobs to labour hire jobs just to cut pay. We'll get enterprise bargaining off life support and employees and employers back to the negotiation table for more productive workplaces, more profitable enterprises and higher wages, and we'll lead a new push to deliver genuine pay equity for Australian women, because workers, not just millionaires, should be rewarded for their hard work.

While Labor will pass the appropriations bills, we will do so knowing that our plan is fairer and more responsible because we've made the big calls and we've got them right. Australians deserve better than what they've received from this government. They deserve a government that tries to build our society, not rip it apart, and that looks to improve our health and education systems, not starve them.

David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The appropriation bills before us today authorise government spending next year. They indicate how the government plans to spend taxpayer funds. My problem with them is that they show annual government spending will set a new record. Spending once again outstrips revenue, meaning we are continuing to fail to live within our means and that we are getting deeper into debt and continuing a decade-long run of deficits. Because of that I oppose these bills.

These appropriation bills also authorise an additional $7.9 billion of spending in the current financial year. Just to remind everyone: there are only five days left to run in this financial year. That's extra spending of $1.5 billion a day. Over the next five days Canberrans will be rolling in cash and Canberrans will proclaim, 'There's never been a better time to be a public servant.'

The government is scheduling a lot of its discretionary spending this financial year, rather than later, so that it can claim to be reducing discretionary spending over the next four years. This is fraudulent, and the Minister for Finance knows it. This government is a big-spending government, and no creative accounting can hide it. As I outlined in my alternative budget, published in the Australian Financial Review, there are plenty of options to cut spending. Cut the Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities, the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, the Department of the Environment and Energy, the Department of Communications and the Arts. Cut the Australia Council for the Arts and the Sports Commission. Cut Austrade and Tourism Australia. Cut the Workplace Gender Equality Agency and Indigenous Business Australia. Cut spending on research and cut spending on foreign aid. The government could do all this in the budget bills and not have to worry about Senate obstruction. If the government did this, it could repeat the successful political tactics we saw last week.

Last week the government convinced the Senate that it was fiscally responsible to pass small, personal income tax cuts. These personal income tax cuts are now law, and the Labor opposition, unless it's prepared to accept them, now needs to campaign to raise personal tax rates at the next election. This has boosted the government's re-election prospects quite considerably, in my view.

If the government were to cut spending, it could convince the Senate that it was fiscally responsible to pass still more tax cuts. It could cut taxes on fuel and cars, alcohol and tobacco, tampons and sanitary pads, and electricity and imports. The Labor opposition would then need to campaign to raise taxes on the products that everyday Australians buy. This is a political opportunity that the government should realise is too good to miss. Unfortunately, it seems willing to miss it, because the government's big spending continues in the appropriation bills before us today. But it's not too late. It could improve its political future enormously by stealing the low-spending, low-taxing policies of the Liberal Democrats. I'd be delighted if it did.

Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Science, Jobs and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank all senators who have contributed to the debate on the 2018-19 annual appropriation bills, as well the two top-up appropriation bills for the end of 2017-18. Briefly, in response to Senator Leyonhjelm's contribution, I would just make the point that the largest part of the top-up appropriations for 2017-18 is to pay New South Wales and Victoria for the acquisition of their shares in the Snowy Hydro scheme. Contrary to some of the suggestions that Senator Leyonhjelm was making, the acquisition of Snowy Hydro paves the way for Snowy 2.0 by streamlining shareholder approvals.

These appropriation bills seek authority from the parliament or the expenditure of money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund for annual expenditure of agencies. Key measures supported by these bills have been highlighted during their introduction and the detail of the bills has been explored in detail during the Senate estimates process. Particular highlights of the bills include investments in landmark national infrastructure. This includes equity investment for the delivery of Western Sydney Airport and Inland Rail, concessional loan funding for stage 2 of the WestConnex project and funding to secure full Commonwealth ownership of Snowy Hydro Limited to help support Australia's energy future.

Of particular interest to the parliament, funding has been provided in the appropriation bill for the parliamentary departments so that DPS can establish a cybersecurity operations centre for Parliament House. This will strengthen cybersecurity arrangements for the parliamentary computer network to enhance the protection of privileged information held by members and senators. The total of the appropriations sought through the three 2018-19 appropriation bills is just under $108.5 billion, and the final appropriations sought in the two 2017-18 bills is under $8 billion. Once again, I thank all senators for their contribution. I commend the bills to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bills read a second time.