Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

These appropriation bills seek to appropriate $2.2 billion in the 2015-16 financial year. The additional appropriations reflect changes to the budget made in the 2015-16 Mid-year Economic and Fiscal Outlook released on 15 December 2015. The key expenditures these bills provide for include: $447 million for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection for the onshore immigration detention network; further support for refugee resettlement and additional support for the accommodation and processing of asylum seekers; $108 million for the National Disability Insurance Agency, for the transition to the full National Disability Insurance Scheme, as agreed with New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania; and $385 million for the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development, which primarily reflects the additional funding for the Roads to Recovery program that we agreed to with the current government.

Labor will support the passage of these bills. Unlike those opposite, we respect our Constitution and respect the conventions of the Constitution and do not block supply in the Australian parliament. However, the second reading amendment to the bill will seek to highlight this government's complete lack of economic and fiscal credibility and any semblance of an economic plan for our nature's future. When it comes to economic management this government and the Prime Minister are all foam and no beer.

Prior to September 2013, growth and reducing the deficit was all we heard from the other side. We were told ad nauseam that we had to fix a budget emergency and that they were the ones—the only ones—who could fix the budget. Now, after 2½ years and plenty of talk, the Liberal Party has been exposed for the economic failures that they are. Rather than provide the Australian people with sound economic management, the Liberal government has delivered a deficit blow-out of $26 billion over the forward estimates. Debt is at nearly $100 billion—

Debate interrupted.

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