Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher

JOURNALIST: Getting tax-to-GDP lower and inside the guard rails that the Coalition’s talked about, is that a win and a sign for you guys that you can fight back against their arguments on the Budget?

SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE: We always look at ways to make sure that the tax, basically, the tax that we get into the Budget is fair and that it's used appropriately to fund services. We want it to be as low as it possibly can be, but we've also got to ensure that people are getting access to services that are funded appropriately. And so that's why you see these big investments into Medicare, how we've stabilised the NDIS, our funding going into aged care, all those key services that people care about. And I think most people understand that in order to deliver services, we've got to raise some revenue in order to do that. But the Budget will be thousands of decisions where we look at what's coming in and how we can prioritise within that. That's why you'll see the focus in this budget on cost-of-living, responsible cost-of-living help. We've got budget repair, so $95 billion worth of savings that we’ve found over the last four budgets, to make sure that we can invest into those services and a responsible approach to managing the debt, lowering the interest costs on that debt, all helps in repairing the Budget and repairing it over time.

JOURNALIST: The Independents today are calling for a higher gas reserve policy to be rolled out in order to bring down power prices. Will Labor consider that if you do end up in a minority government and that is one of the key demands? 

GALLAGHER: Well, we've been clear that gas is an essential fuel to manage the transition to a renewable energy future. So, Madeleine King and our colleagues when we first came to government, we had to make sure very quickly as gas prices were going up that we had enough supply and that we were managing some of the pressures in that area. That will continue. It is an essential component of this energy transition. We need gas. Many Independents have kind of tried to demonise gas and other fossil fuels in the transition to renewable energy future. We've been clear from the beginning that we need gas. We need to make sure there's enough supply for Australians to support that energy transition, and you'll see that continue.

JOURNALIST: Will the power bill rebates be the biggest cost-of-living measure in the Budget? Or do you have more things up your sleeve for tomorrow night?

GALLAGHER: Well, we've already announced Medicare, that was around $8 billion over the forward estimates. So, that's a very significant investment, that is aimed at cost-of-living. Obviously, the energy bill rebates are there as well. This budget, and you'll see it tomorrow night, has a focus on managing cost-of-living pressures, making sure we are helping households where we can, making sure we've got services we need going forward, but also making sure that we are dealing with budget repair, and that's the work that I've been doing. Reducing the reliance on consultants and contractors and making sure that we can deliver those $95 billion worth of savings. That is not an insignificant amount of money, particularly when you look at the Coalition's last budget, where there was precisely zero savings in their budget. We've managed to find savings every budget and every budget update since, and that is the approach you'd see under an Albanese Government if we win the election. 

JOURNALIST: You've said that the Coalition's public service cuts could impact defence and border protection roles. Where have you identified that that that could be the case, given that there has been very little detail from the Coalition themselves?

GALLAGHER: Well, the Coalition and Senator Hume doubled down on this yesterday, said the 36,000 jobs would go under them. They said they would return the public service to where it was when they were last in government. And what that meant is we had a smaller permanent public service, but we had a whole lot of people – 54,000 people – off the books in labour hire. Of that 36,000 in new jobs, new permanent, secure jobs, the largest part of that is in defence and national security. So, if they are saying that these jobs are excess to requirements, not needed, shouldn't have been employed in the first place, they are in all of the national security agencies and they're in the Department of Defence. They're in the new submarine agency that we've established in order to deliver AUKUS. So, you can't run around saying you're going to cut 36,000 jobs and then pretend that they're not going to come from any of those frontline service areas. It's just incoherent. And they were incoherent yesterday, between them, Senator Hume and Mr Taylor were incoherent in their interviews yesterday. If you cut 36,000 jobs, you'll cut services, and you'll cut jobs in Defence, you'll cut them in Veterans’ Affairs, you'll cut them in the NDIS, you'll cut them in the Department of Health, that is where – you'll cut them in Services Australia – because that is where the new jobs have gone.

JOURNALIST: If you do win the election is there any chance of turning a budget surplus in the next term of government?

GALLAGHER: Well, that remains to be seen. I mean, you know, budgets are a combination of hundreds of decisions, and they also reflect the economic circumstances of the time. There's no doubt the Budget's under pressure. It's under pressure from those key areas of health, NDIS, aged care, defence and managing the debt that we inherited from the Liberals. They're the five big pressures on the Budget, and you've got to manage those over time. So, we've delivered two surpluses, back-to-back surpluses, the first in over a decade. That's been an important part of our budget repair story. It means we've had to borrow less debt, it means the interest payments on that debt has been lowered, and we'll continue with that approach going forward. We've never pretended the Budget isn't under pressure. It is. But we've also done the reform work in NDIS and aged care to make sure over the medium term, some of those pressures are being alleviated. 

JOURNALIST: Would you say that public servants are becoming a political football and lead up to this election?

GALLAGHER: Well, the Coalition have decided to beat up the public service, and that's for them to explain. I think it's an honourable profession, and we need to resource it properly to do the jobs that they need to do. And Senator Hume consistently is incorrect when she says that services haven't improved. Services have improved in all areas. They've improved in Veterans’ Affairs. They've improved in the NDIS. They've improved in Services Australia, and that's because we are resourcing the public service properly. Takes ex-cyclone Alfred just a few weeks ago. NEMA didn't exist under the former government. There, we had a national coordinating body. We had Services Australia staff ready to go, and we have now spent, I think, over $138 [million] in payments to people because the staff were there to process it. In previous natural disasters, we've had complaints about processing times, or people not getting their payments, or people weren't warned enough, or people didn't understand what their entitlements were. Just have a look at what happened under ex-cyclone Alfred. None of that has happened, and none of that has happened because the public service was out there before it even happened, providing services, and this is what the Coalition want to cut. Thank you.