Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. This morning on Sky News the minister said, 'The whole cabinet has to take responsibility for the budget.' As a member of cabinet, does the minister take responsibility for not just the aid cuts but every element of this unfair budget?

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The shadow deputy leader ought to understand that a budget process is a cabinet process. It is undertaken by the entire cabinet. I am sorry if that was not the case in the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments, but it certainly is in ours. In relation to the aid budget, I think it is worth noting that Labor ripped $5.7 billion out of the aid budget in its last couple of years. Labor moved funding from the aid budget into the onshore processing of asylum seeker claims. Labor so debauched the aid budget that we had to stabilise the aid budget and introduce a new paradigm so that the spending would be more effective, more efficient and targeted to outcomes. This is a party that spent the aid budget on building a statue in the UN plaza in New York. This is a party that spent the aid budget on building a parliament house in the Caribbean, and this is coming from the shadow minister for foreign affairs who thinks that Africa is a country. Seriously!