Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher

EMMA REBELLATO, HOST: Well, there's plenty going on in news and in politics, of course. We're joined now by the Finance Minister, Katy Gallagher, in Canberra. Minister, thanks for joining us this morning. 

SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE: Good morning. Thanks for having me on, Emma.

REBELLATO: Let's start with the Optus outage, another outage that happened yesterday in New South Wales. How on earth is this still happening?

GALLAGHER: Yes, look, I imagine for many Optus customers, this is more disappointing news off the back of the major disruption that happened the week before. Look, I understand it is slightly different to the major outage that you've been covering over the last week, but yes, it's still disappointing. And although I understand Optus did make the necessary reports over the weekend, there's clearly more work to be done. There's a number of reviews underway, and I know that they'll be having meetings with the Minister for Communications this week.

REBELLATO: Should Australians have faith in their ability to access Triple Zero? We've seen a number of outages now in the past few years. 

GALLAGHER: Well, yes, they should, and we've seen a disruption on that from Optus’ point of view over the last week with devastating effects. And these are really, really serious deficiencies when they occur. We had a review after the last major outage for Optus that had a number of recommendations, some of which have been implemented, and I think there's questions that Optus are going to have to answer about what happened in the last fortnight and their response to it. Those reviews are underway, but part of the reason for those reviews is to make sure that the Triple Zero system and people's ability to connect when they need to is in the best shape possible. And that's what those reviews need to deliver through recommendations, and that will be the work that Anika Wells is focused on as Communications Minister.

REBELLATO: So what else will the Government do to stop this from happening again? Because it's one thing to have reviews, but it's another thing to prevent this from going on.

GALLAGHER: Well, again, we're implementing some of the recommendations of that previous report, but these, you know, we need to have a look at what happened last week. We need to have some very clear understanding from Optus about what happened and why it happened. And then if the reviews come back and find faults or failures or further things that need to be done to protect people's ability to connect to Triple Zero, then they need to be implemented. You know, it's not satisfactory at all to have people unable to connect in their time of need, and that needs to be – we need to make sure that's as strong and robust as possible. And that's the work that Minister Wells and the regulators are leading, and that will be front and centre of any discussion she has with both Singtel and Optus this week.

REBELLATO: Minister, the latest budget figures have come out showing the deficit for last financial year is lower than originally forecast. How should Australian workers feel about it, given that a lot of it is because of their taxpayer money and their income tax?

GALLAGHER: So Emma, this is, overall, it's good news. The Final Budget Outcome, with the deficit coming in at just under $10 billion, which is significantly lower than it was forecast to be at the election, and also much lower – I think that when we came to government, the forecast for this year was a deficit in the order of $47 billion. So, you can see significant improvement there. And part of the story, as you say, is the strength of our labour market. So that means more people in jobs, more people working the hours they want, and that has flow on benefits to the Budget. So that is part of the story. But the overall story of the strength of the labour market is a good one. People in jobs, people earning wages and getting good pay for those jobs. But what it also means is that the, you know, with the work that we've done to find savings, to pay down debt, to make sure when we deliver two surpluses and this coming in with a much lower deficit, it means the Budget's in better shape to deal with some of those challenges that are coming our way. Whether it be, you know, the need to invest in Medicare and make sure people get access to bulk billing, or at the other end, making sure that we've got the resources available to do what we need to do in defence, in NDIS, in aged care. There's no shortage of areas where, you know, there's pressure facing the budget. They're increasing, not decreasing, and getting the Budget in better shape means that we're in a better position to deal with some of those pressures.

REBELLATO: Minister, the RBA is meeting today and tomorrow ahead of the next rate cut announcement on interest rates. Nobody's really expecting any movement, but what do you say to Australian households who are desperate for another cut?

GALLAGHER: Well, the RBA will make their decision based on the economic data that they have that's available, and we don't pre-empt or speculate on what that decision might be. We've seen those interest rate cuts over the last few months, and we know that they have helped our household budgets. And that's good news for household budgets. Our job is to make sure that we're doing what we can to help with cost-of-living pressures. So, we've got all of the measures that we've got in the Budget, as I've said, whether it's health, whether it's making sure energy bill relief is provided, whether it's tax cuts. All of those are there to work alongside some of the measures the RBA may take on interest rates. And the other part of our job is to make sure that we're looking at productivity and that we're looking at economic growth, the opportunities we have for economic growth, so that we can continue to strengthen our economy and make sure people are able to work in jobs and get paid for jobs that help them deal with their household budgets. That's our job, and that's what we're focused on.

REBELLATO: Okay. Minister Katy Gallagher, thanks for joining us this morning.

GALLAGHER: Thank you.