Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher

EMMA REBELLATO, HOST: Well, for some more on some of our top stories, we're joined now by Finance Minister Katy Gallagher in Sydney. Minister, good morning.

KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE: Good morning, Emma.

REBELLATO: I'd like to speak to you about a few different issues, but of course I want to start with the latest on Independent MP Helen Haines. We know what's happened to her is affecting so many people - her family, the wider community, but also politicians. How are you and how are your colleagues, particularly women MPs?

GALLAGHER: Well, I think everyone's just been deeply affected by this attack on Helen, and all of our thoughts all week really have been for her and her family, her friends and her community of Indi. I mean, it's very, very hard to get our heads around what has happened and the consequences for Helen and her family. I thought her husband Phil was an incredible advocate on her behalf yesterday, but I know the whole nation has been deeply affected and cares deeply for Helen. But, yeah, it's kind of a bit surreal, actually. It's hard to describe how everyone's feeling, and maybe particularly for Helen.

REBELLATO: Minister, on top of what's happened to Helen, we've just heard about the arrest in WA of a man accused of verbal threats and of entering the office of state Labor MP Hannah Beazley. Allegations he may have been armed with nunchucks. You mentor other women MPs, particularly younger MPs. What are they telling you? Are they reconsidering whether they have a future in politics because of what's happening?

GALLAGHER: Look, I don't think so. I mean, these stories are shocking in many ways to the public, but for many MPs, and it's men and women, these stories of threats against their person aren't new. It's something we've been living with at an increasing rate for a couple of years now. I think the women, particularly the younger women, the newer women to Parliament, are feeling quite defiant, but they have been deeply shocked and deeply affected by the attack on Helen. And so our job is to support and to also look at what we can do to make MPs, but it isn't just MPs. I mean, the conversations I've been having in recent days have been about teachers and healthcare workers and retail workers who are all putting up with increased levels of aggression and violence in their workplace. And so I think it's incumbent upon all of us to work out: how do we deal with that, and how do we make workers safe in their workplace? And politicians are no different.

REBELLATO: Minister, I'd like to move on to a few other issues, a few other news stories that we're chasing today. There's a new report out by Domain. It says that house prices have fallen in every capital city for the first time in 15 years, a 4.7% drop in the September quarter. Is this a good thing, in your view?

GALLAGHER: Well, the government doesn't control house prices. You know, house prices fluctuate and they do move in line with things happening in the economy. I think there are a number of factors that feed into house prices. One of those, and an important part of that, is interest rates. So, as we've been seeing inflation be higher than we would like for longer than we would like, we are seeing some of the impacts of those interest rate increases on house prices. But housing investment is a long-term investment. So, house prices go up and they come down a little, and then they come up again. And so this is, I think, for most people, their investment in housing is for the long term.

REBELLATO: Minister, speaking of inflation, we heard from the RBA Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser yesterday saying the inflation outlook is materially worse. That's raising the prospect of another interest rate rise next month. But is high inflation now entrenched in Australia, do you think?

GALLAGHER: Well, I know that's one of the issues that the Deputy Governor talked about, and that's one of the things the bank keeps an eye on. I mean, it's one of the things they respond to, and I saw his comments in relation to that. Look, I think our job, and the bank has a difficult job, the government's job is to make sure that the decisions we take act hand in hand with the bank and don't make their job harder. And that's the work before us and all of those in government as we make those decisions around the mid-year economic and fiscal update towards the end of this year. But I saw that the Deputy Governor made reference to the war in the Middle East. You know, this is having real-life impacts here at home on petrol prices, in the supermarkets, and those impacts are being felt deeply by households.

REBELLATO: Minister, we've just had confirmation from the government about some websites being temporarily unavailable. Now, this is to do with a software program, a flaw that AI has identified. Now, this is affecting websites around the world. How worried should we be? How vulnerable are we in Australia to potential cyber attacks?

GALLAGHER: Well, I think the government's no different to businesses and individuals. The increasing number of cyber attacks is something that we put a lot of work into across government. Tony Burke leads that work. But I know from my own experience with the attention that's paid to Services Australia in particular, we are putting more and more investment into making sure our systems, our websites, our information are kept safe. But particularly as the AI revolution continues and those frontier models are new in terms of how our systems deal with them, we're having to put more and more significant focus in this area to keep our information and our programs safe.

REBELLATO: Minister, thank you for your time.

GALLAGHER: Thanks very much, Emma.