Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to bring the debate on Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 2) 2013-2014, Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2013-2014 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2013-2014 to a close. I wish to thank those senators who have made a contribution to this debate. These additional estimates appropriation bills seek authority from the parliament for the additional expenditure of money from the consolidated revenue fund. I would like to highlight three areas relating to the delivery of the government's commitments that are supported by these bills.

First, over $8.8 billion is proposed for the Treasury primarily to make a one-off payment to the Reserve Bank of Australia to help ensure adequate resourcing for the bank to conduct its monetary policy and foreign exchange operations. Second, over $2.5 billion is proposed for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade primarily for it to administer official development assistance programs that moved last November to that department from the former agency AusAID. Third, over $1.1 billion is proposed for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. This includes over $620 million in relation to illegal maritime arrivals issues as well as almost $400 million for offshore asylum seeker management. The total of the appropriations being sought through these three appropriation bills is just over $14.8 billion.

Question agreed to.

Bills read a second time.