Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. What pressures are placed on the budget when ongoing programs are left unfunded?

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks to the member for Paterson for her question. Six weeks tomorrow, from this dispatch box, the Albanese government will hand down its second budget, and we have been upfront about the pressures on the budget and the pressures on our economy which provide the context for that budget. In this environment there is, as always, a premium on what's responsible, what's affordable and methodical, and what is sustainable in the budget while also making sure that we continue to clean up the mess that we were left by those opposite. One of the biggest pressures on the budget in May will actually be programs which any normal human being would assume were ongoing programs but which those opposite funded, in lots of cases, only until the end of June this year. This is how those opposite booby trapped the budget that they left behind—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Barker is on a warning.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

with all of these ongoing programs which aren't funded in an ongoing way. So in our first budget, in October, we had to spend more than $4 billion to make up for these cover-ups when it came to essential government programs that weren't funded in an ongoing way—unlegislated zombie measures that were never going to pass the parliament—and the failure of those opposite to adequately provision for funding for the COVID response.

Once again, in May, we will need to find billions of dollars—

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Oh, poor Jim!

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Gippsland will cease interjecting.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

to make up for those opposite's propensity to make big announcements but not actually fund them in the budget. Let me give you a few examples, Mr Speaker. For example, the former government jumped up and said they were going to fund 50 per cent of the Olympics in South-East Queensland. They budgeted precisely zero dollars for that task. Those opposite had the My Health Record system, which is used by millions of Australians to store personal health information, not funded beyond the middle of this year; the eSafety Commissioner, which is responsible for keeping our kids safe online, not funded; and the Australian Radioactive Waste Agency, in charge of disposing of radioactive materials, not funded. MyGov is not funded in an ongoing way. This is the way that those opposite went about vandalising the budget. They were notorious for making the big announcements but not funding them in the budget.

The Leader of the Opposition can't distance himself from this behaviour. He was a member of the Expenditure Review Committee that made these decisions. He sits over there hoping that if he doesn't ask any questions the voters of Aston won't notice and won't remember who the Leader of the Liberal Party is in Canberra.

They were notorious for doing this, Mr Speaker. Those opposite should take responsibility for the mess that they made of the budget, in the same way that we take responsibility for cleaning it up.