Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Treasurer, Senator Gallagher. On Monday, and again today in question time, the minister criticised terminating funding for My Health Record. Given this somewhat pious grandstanding, why didn't the minister address this in Labor's budget last October, for which the minister claimed that she went through every single budget item line by line?

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

I thank Senator Reynolds for the question. Is this the best that they've got, that the terminating measures that they put in the budget—the only criticism is that we didn't get to the hundreds of terminating measures, the booby traps, the funding cliffs, the zombie measures, that you used to dress up your budget to make it look something that it wasn't. Is the best that you've got that we didn't deal with all of those messes, the entire mess that is the budget, the budget vandals that you had, that it wasn't all fixed in October, that we didn't fix up all your messes in October?

Opposition Senator:

An opposition senator interjecting—

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

I'll take that. We didn't because there are so many of them. We dealt with the first bit in October. Just as we did with our spending audit. We did what we could in October and we said we would come back and look at this through the budget in May. And that is what we are doing. But we are also highlighting the fact that those opposite booby trapped the budget, dressed it up before an election, pretended that they were these responsible fiscal managers when, at the very same time, they were hiding pressures.

They had zombie measures in from 2016 that they still had in their bottom line, even though they were never going to get through this Senate. There was $4.1 billion of mess in October that we cleaned up, and you will see more of us cleaning up the mess, more of the results of cleaning up the mess, in May, because there was so much mess it couldn't all be done in the first economic update.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Reynolds, first supplementary?

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Monday, the minister also criticised terminating funding for the Australian Radioactive Waste Agency, adding, 'Do you reckon they might need ongoing funding to keep their programs going?' Remember that, colleagues, because given the minister's grandstanding, yet again, why didn't the minister address this in Labor's budget last October for—remember? What did the minister say? She had gone through the budget line by line! So did you miss this one too in your budget analysis?

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I've called order. Minister, please resume your seat. Senator Scarr, I've just called order. Minister, please continue.

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

Thank you very much, and can I thank Senator Reynolds for highlighting the mess that they left us. I really appreciate it. I've been looking forward to dorothies on terminating measures. I didn't expect to get a dorothy from Senator Reynolds on terminating measures. We went through and made decisions, in the time we could, for October. We were elected in May. We went straight into putting forward the October budget. We did what we could. I think we indicated at the time that there was more work to be done. And there will continue to be work to be done, as we uncover these issues, as agencies bring them forward, through the processes of the budget, and we deal with them. Because that's what responsible governments do. Responsible governments don't have zombie measures propping up their budgets. Responsible governments don't fail to address pressures that are about to hit the budget. Responsible governments do it the way we are doing it.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Reynolds, a second supplementary question?

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In light of all of your comments—the dog ate my homework, zombies, booby traps—in light of all of your comments on terminating measures, can you guarantee now, in light of all those comments, that the 2023-24 budget will have no terminating measure, and if not, why not?

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

or GALLAGHER (—) (): The point I'm making is about ongoing programs that are clearly going to continue. There is a place—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

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

I'm answering the question that Senator Reynolds asked. There is a place for time-limited measures in a budget. For example, if there's a need to fund something—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Reynolds on a point of order?

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Could I just ask—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Reynolds, resume you seat. Minister, please continue.

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

Those opposite will have to wait to see the budget, but I can tell you that they will see a budget where responsible decisions are being made about programs that are ongoing, where they've been underfunded, where they've been neglected, where they're being used as a way of propping up a budget to pretend that those costs aren't coming. You will see the government working carefully to deal with those. They are a significant pressure on the budget, and they will contribute to significant expenditure in fixing them up.