Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher

BRIDGET BRENNAN, HOST:Well, let’s get more on one of our top stories this morning, that inflation data out yesterday. Finance Minister Katy Gallagher joins me now. Good morning to you.

SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE:Good morning, Bridget.

BRENNAN: Great to talk to you. Look, these figures are pretty welcome for a lot of Australians. Do you think it’s time now for the Reserve Bank to look at this data and lower interest rates?

GALLAGHER: Well, thanks for having me on the show, Bridget. Look, that is a matter for the Reserve Bank. We don’t tell them how to do their job and they leave us to do our job. But these figures are really welcome. We’ve seen inflation continue to moderate, to come off pretty substantially. When you think about when we came to government, we had inflation with a 6 in front of it, it’s now at 2.8 per cent, back in the band for headline inflation. That’s very welcome. And to make that real for people, it means that we’re getting those cost pressures back into the normal range. And that should make a difference. We know the job isn’t done and we know people are really feeling a lot of pain, that’s why we’re still looking at how we can provide that cost-of-living relief through tax cuts and energy bill rebates. But this is really welcome news in the fight against inflation.

BRENNAN:So, will it mean a bit of relief for Australians going into 2025? I mean, so many families are going to have a tough Christmas this year. I know you don’t want to take a view on what the Reserve Bank does, but do you think now is the time for Australians to be getting a little bit more relief?

GALLAGHER:Well, when we look at our job, I mean we’re constantly – Jim Chalmers and I and the PM – are constantly looking at ways that we can provide cost-of-living relief that doesn’t add to the inflation challenge. And this has been the balance that we’ve been having to play really since we came to government, when inflation was going up, tracking up, and it’s been tracking down for the last couple of years. These inflation results are the lowest we’ve seen in 3 years. That’s a very, very strong result. But we get the job isn’t done and we get for people putting their household budgets together, you know they’re still feeling that pain. The Bank will make their decisions. Our job has been to make sure that the decisions we take aren’t adding to the inflation challenge, and we see from these results that those – the decisions we have been making have been helping.

BRENNAN:Ahead of the next election, are you going to have a broader discussion around the high cost of childcare? I know you’ve done quite a bit already. There have been some welcome measures for parents. But when we look at these figures out yesterday, childcare remains one of those central costs for Australian families and it is restricting some people from going back into the workforce.

GALLAGHER: Well, you know, Bridget, we’ve been very interested in how we make childcare more affordable and particularly how we make it more workable, particularly for women who are often the ones that take on the additional caring roles and maybe come in and out of the workforce and take on part-time jobs. So, this is something we’ve been working on, both in terms of providing extra funding into the subsidies to make childcare cheaper, and it’s doing that, but also about the workforce. I mean part of the issue we’ve got with childcare is the supply of it, particularly in some areas – so, the supply of workers but also places. So, I wish there was all these easy solutions to these bigger problems and pressures, but we’re looking at it from a number of ways. So, childcare workers will get that pay increase, that was agreed to yesterday. And now we’re working with Anne Aly and Jason Clare about what more can be done. But we recognise childcare can be a handbrake on certainly women’s participation but also families who have children. You know, pretty much 12 years and under.

BRENNAN: A big fire’s broken out at the BAE Systems work yards in Cumbria in the UK, potentially having an impact on our AUKUS manufacturing. Has the government had any updates on this? How significant is this?

GALLAGHER: Look, we have been working – obviously, this is sort of early breaking news, but we have been working with our UK counterparts, the Australian Submarine Agency will be in close contact with BAE UK. We haven’t had any advice that there’s any concerns around AUKUS or deliver-ability of that, but obviously it’s early days. There’s good communication. It’s a strong partnership and we’ll continue to work with them.

BRENNAN: Let’s talk about integrity now, Katy Gallagher. What’s your personal philosophy on whether to accept or seek flight upgrades?

GALLAGHER: Well, I operate in the rules. So, if I receive any kind of gift or hospitality, those rules are very clear. You must declare it. That’s the important thing and the rules have been established by the parliament and they’re the rules that MPs must follow and if they don’t, they need to correct the record as soon as possible and make sure those declarations are appropriately made. I see Bridget McKenzie might need to be doing that with the story in the Financial Review this morning.

BRENNAN: As a general principle, I mean we have this big discussion around integrity in the lead up to the last election, it was something your government really campaigned on – do you think it sends the right message to Australians when politicians are getting upgrades, getting, by all intents and purposes, freebies from airlines when you also control the regulatory environment?

GALLAGHER:Well, again, the system the parliament has put in place – and we’ve done a number of things on the integrity front, Bridget. Obviously, we have the National Anti-Corruption Commission, that was our big commitment in the election, that is up and running. And then we have a system that the parliament has agreed to through the Register of Interests, and that means that if you do receive anything, you must declare them. So, it’s about transparency and accountability. People can go on the website and have a look at that and see what people have on their register. But they are the rules, and the rules need to be followed.

BRENNAN: The Prime Minister has denied calling the former Qantas chief, Alan Joyce. Do you know whether he had other communications with Alan Joyce, perhaps text messages, other ways of communicating, emails and that sort of thing?

GALLAGHER: Well, my understanding – and the PM has answered a lot of questions about this in the last few days – is that that isn’t the case, that he hasn’t, that any arrangement for changes to flights were made in the normal way, as occurs with many MPs or all MPs across the Parliament.

BRENNAN:So, he definitely hasn’t had any kind of communication with Alan Joyce over the years in regards to upgrades and requests for upgrades and that sort of thing, in other means of communicating, aside from calls?

GALLAGHER: Well, that is – that’s the answer. I mean, and the PM has answered this over the last few days, and I am providing you with the same answer. That isn’t the case. I think the PM has also been clear about the conversations he has had with Alan Joyce in the press conference he did. It wasn’t about those matters that you raise. The PM has been very transparent, I work closely with him. I know how seriously he takes his responsibilities to the parliament. These are around matters that happened over the last two decades, and the reason we’re talking about them is because they are declared. They’re declared on his register, as they should be, as per the rules. And I would say some of the response from the Opposition in particular, to come out when they need to look at their own arrangements – and we can see that in the story in the Financial Review today about the person that’s come out probably the hardest, Bridget McKenzie, against the PM, about whether she has disclosed – as per the rules required.

BRENNAN:Alright, Katy Gallagher, have a good day in Melbourne, thanks for talking to us.

GALLAGHER:Thanks very much, Bridget.