Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know there's a lot of interest in the House at the moment on this particular bill. I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) provides for appropriations for the last seven months of the next financial year, 2025-26, for the operations of:

The bill seeks approval for appropriations from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of $195.3 million. This broadly represents seven-twelfths—it rolls off your tongue, doesn't it—of the estimated 2025-26 annual appropriations for the parliamentary departments and provides funding for new measures announced in the 2025-26 budget tonight—the 2025-26 budget. The supply bills currently before parliament provide for the balance of annual appropriations for 2025-26—that is, funding for the first five months of 2025-26.

Together with the Supply (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2025-26, this bill provides appropriations for expenditure in relation to the parliamentary departments for the full financial year, 2025-26.

The most significant item in this bill is the provision of over $155 million to the Department of Parliamentary Services to support the work of the Australian parliament, through services to parliamentarians and as custodians of Parliament House.

This bill also includes an advance to the responsible Presiding Officer of $1.9 million. However, if the bill were passed along with Supply (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1), moved earlier today, the total allowable advance to the responsible Presiding Officer cannot exceed the $1.9 million under the Supply (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1). This is equivalent to that which was provided in similar provisions in 2024-25.

Full details of the proposed expenditure are set out in the schedule to the bill, the explanatory memorandum, and the portfolio budget statements tabled in relation to the supply bills and budget bills for 2025-26. I commend the bill to the chamber.

Debate adjourned.

House adjourned at 20:09