Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you so much, Deputy Speaker Chesters, and may I say how great it is to see you in the chair. I will make a few introductory comments about the budget overall. This is Labor's third budget. It's one that we're incredibly proud of. The budget very clearly is directed at the very obvious No. 1 issue that faces our constituents today, and that is the difficulties in managing the cost of living. In communities like mine in Melbourne's south-east, this is the predominant topic of discussion around the dinner table, at the schoolyard, at sporting events on the weekend and everywhere else where constituents and citizens are getting together.

The budget is designed and tailored to help people who are under really significant pressure right now while setting Australians up for the future. That's why, broadly across the budget, we see that every single taxpayer in our country gets a tax cut. That's why every household gets $300 off their energy bills, and that's why we're investing in A Future Made in Australia. This is also a budget that's going to be very important for delivering border protection for our country. We're investing in a safer, more secure and more resilient Australia, which every citizen in our country deserves.

This was a really big and important budget for the Home Affairs portfolio. What's made clear in the budget papers is that this budget invests $1.2 billion more for Home Affairs and Australian Border Force. That's because the safety and security of the Australian community is core business for us at Home Affairs. It means securing our borders, ensuring the safety of our community and cleaning up a lot of very significant messes that we inherited when we came to government. It also means delivering on a smaller and better targeted migration program, and that's something that I know the immigration minister will want to speak to. What we have here is a real plan. For the first time, our country has a written strategy for our migration system, and it's going to deliver the better quality system that we need. It's going to deliver the smaller migration program that we need, and it's going to deliver it with better planning so that, for example, state governments are better able to plan for housing, schools and hospitals to service a growing population. It also means significant investments in improving economic and social outcomes for migrants, ending those incredible rorts and exploitation that we saw under the approach of the previous government.

I'd like to talk a little bit about the specific funding for border protection in the budget. An additional $569.4 million will boost the capabilities that underpin the principles of safety and security. This includes some very substantial investments in planes, boats and vehicles that our Operation Sovereign Borders personnel rely on to protect the integrity of our borders. This brings the additional investment made by our government—versus what was promised by those opposite—to an extraordinary $1.31 billion. Let me say that again: our government is spending $1.31 billion more on this critical national security task than was promised by those opposite. I can't stand the way some of the debates in my portfolio end up with 'he said, she said' debates across the chamber, so, instead of using my words, I'll use the words of the Commissioner of the Australian Border Force who—even before this budget, based on the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been committed before this budget to Border Force—has said, 'Border Force funding is currently the highest it's been since its establishment.'

Of course, the important work of our department doesn't stop with migration and borders. I want to point out the Albanese government's commitment of $71.6 million in the budget to combat the ever-present threat presented by foreign interference and espionage. The Director-General of Security, Mike Burgess, has spoken to parliamentarians and to the Australian public about the fact that foreign interference and espionage have supplanted terrorism as the principal national security concern facing the country. Of course our agencies and our government will always prioritise threats to life. However, he is pointing to what is a very significant and growing problem of foreign interference and espionage. That's why that commitment of $71.6 million was made in the budget.

We also made the Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce permanent. This is a unique feature of our approach to foreign interference in this country and something we're very proud of.

There's a lot to say in migration, but I have the immigration minister next to me here, and I know he'll want to speak in detail to those topics and to the issues about migrant economic and social outcomes. I want to commend the budget to the parliament, and I'm keen to hear the debate that ensues.

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