Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on these bills, the Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2024-25, Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2024-2025 and Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 2) 2024-2025. These bills do, of course, provide the necessary appropriations to ensure the continued delivery of essential government services and to fund decisions made since the 2024-25 budget was announced in May last year. In total, these bills appropriate $12 billion for the remainder of the financial year, the majority of which, some $7 billion, is directed towards the ordinary annual services of government. The coalition supports this legislation to ensure the smooth operation of government and the uninterrupted provision of services upon which Australians rely.

However, while we support these bills as a matter of necessity, we must also use this opportunity to highlight the grave economic mismanagement that has led us to this point and put Australians under so much cost-of-living pressure. These bills, like the budget bills before them, were introduced in the context of a budget and MYEFO update that yet again exposed the Albanese Labor government's utter failure to tackle our current cost-of-living crisis. We need to get Australians back on track—

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