Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher

KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE: The Treasurer and I will make an announcement come later today, and that will show a $6 billion improvement for the financial year from what was forecast at Budget time. This is a mix of less payments going out the door and also a little tick up in revenue. But I think it's important to show that we are doing what we can to get the Budget in better shape, not only to deal with some of the inflation pressures, but also to make sure we have room to invest in all of those areas that the Australian people care about, in aged care, in hospitals, healthcare, all of those areas where demand is increasing, not decreasing.

JOURNALIST: That tick up in revenue. Can you point to some actual examples of where that's come from?

GALLAGHER: Yeah, so it's, it's, it's essentially from a mix of things, but a big part of it is from superannuation investments, so tax on superannuation investments, which is just a feature of the market at the moment.

JOURNALIST: Minister, is the government bringing forward its planned AI reforms later this year?

GALLAGHER: Well, we're working with the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence. They'll have an interim report, I understand, in the next month or so. We would be keen to do what we can by the end of the year if we're able to reach agreement across the Parliament. But this is obviously a new area of legislative reform, so a bit of work to do there. Hopefully, the OpenAI incident of last week that we reported, which will be considered by this Joint Select Committee, gives people a really clear example of why we need some legislative guardrails here.

JOURNALIST: So not a promise but maybe a goal?

GALLAGHER: Well, we can introduce legislation, it’s up to the Parliament, whether the Parliament's able to deal with it. I think there's a lot of goodwill across the Parliament to try and see what's possible. Certainly, the Opposition are talking by the end of this year, and if that's possible, I think that would be ideal.

JOURNALIST: Minister, we're expecting, well, a fourth rate rise is almost a certainty tomorrow. Does your government accept some responsibility, as many economists have pointed out over the past week, in forcing the RBA's hand, with government spending fueling inflation?

GALLAGHER: Well, I would push back on that, on government spending contributing to some of the pressures that we're seeing in the economy right now. If you look around the world, advanced economies, there is an inflation challenge there. Many of those have moved to increase, or their central banks have moved to increase rates in the last month because of that. I mean, for us here, the war in the Middle East could not end soon enough. That's having ongoing impacts on inflation, particularly being felt at the petrol bowser, but we take our job of getting the Budget in better shape, and that's what we've been doing every Budget, finding savings, making sure that the debt is lower, and paying off the interest on that debt has all been a key part of our Budget strategy, and will continue to do so.

JOURNALIST: You mentioned Services Australia were able to identify unusual activity. The Coalition suggested over the weekend, you know, this is probably not the first. It's just the first we know about. You say, well, you hope that's not the case. Is it worth doing an audit? Would you commission some sort of audit across the APS to see whether there's evidence that this has actually happened before and we just weren't told?

GALLAGHER: Well, my understanding is this is the first time. I mean, on the information that we've been provided by OpenAI and the information that Services Australia can provide to me, I think all government agencies have been looking at what happened to Services Australia and then looking at their own systems, as they should be. It's been led also by ASD from a whole-of-government point of view. So, let's see what we find out through that work when that work reports. But certainly, from Services Australia's point of view, this is the first incident that they are aware of.

JOURNALIST: Minister, can I just ask you about Snowy Hydro? Have they actually told you anything yet? Because it sounds like they've been sitting on quite a package of details since July. Do you have any sort of headline figure? Do you have anything to give you, I guess, a bit of a heads-up to plan for MYEFO, for next Budget, for what we know is going to be increasing cost?

GALLAGHER: Look, I don't at this point in time. They're doing the cost reassessment report that will come to shareholders when it's finalised, and this is something that we would consider in the mid-year economic update.

JOURNALIST: We're going to get annual reports back soon, and one of the things that comes up in that is pay rises. I mean, do you think the CEO and the board deserve pay rises, given that they're about to report another major cost blowout?

GALLAGHER: Well, in terms of pay and board remuneration, you know, in these areas they're essentially operating as a commercial business, so we do need to remunerate in line with what is paid in that market or that industry sector, because otherwise you wouldn't get people to do that work. But let's wait and see. We haven't got that report yet. Let's see what it says, and then shareholders will make further decisions.

JOURNALIST: Minister, just finally circling back to interest rates, what would you be telling Australian mortgage holders bracing for a fourth rate hike tomorrow? Can you give them any light at the end of the tunnel?

GALLAGHER: Well, I mean, we'd like this war in the Middle East to finish, and I think most Australians want that. But what the government is trying to do is make sure that we are flowing through cost-of-living help that is permanent and ongoing. So, the tax cuts, the investments in Medicare, cheaper medicines, and trying to get wages going again. We, we understand that people are doing it tough, which is why we've been looking at some of these hard decisions in the Budget to make sure that people get a better deal going forward, and we'll continue to do that.

JOURNALIST: Is a discount to the fuel excise still off the cards from your point of view?

GALLAGHER: Well, the focus we've had, like I just said, is being on permanent and ongoing cost-of-living help that we're actually hardwiring into the Budget. But we look at all of these things as we make decisions across the ERC. How do we provide cost-of-living help that makes a difference to people? That's why we've made all those decisions, and we'll continue to have that focus.

JOURNALIST: So it's still on the table then?

GALLAGHER: Look, I've answered - we're focused on that permanent, ongoing cost-of-living help. So, you know, and these are all areas where the opposition have opposed them. So, our tax cuts that we've got flowing through now, our investments in Medicare, cheaper medicines, that is ongoing help to try and take some of the burden off people's, you know, household budgets.