Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to Senator Cormann for the question. It is the case that variations to budget estimates are made, and they occur across a range of programs. The senator has mentioned one. There are others, from memory, in higher education and in some areas of the FaHCSIA portfolio, where we had higher expenditure than expected and, in some cases, lower expenditure. The senator would know that it is a normal part of budgeting to update estimates as and when further information comes in. I think one of the suggestions or implications in the question is that somehow that is untoward. Every government updates its estimates at every budget update in line with information which is received by departments.

In relation to the IMA costs, or irregular maritime arrival costs, as the senator knows—and I would refer him to my answer yesterday—the government is being perfectly transparent about the assessment of these costs.