Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I am not sure where Senator Ludlam gets his figures from when he says that there are hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to the ABC budget. That is just completely wrong, Senator Ludlam. You may care to advise colleagues in this place where you draw that figure from, because it has absolutely no basis in fact. I will come back to where I started, which is where I hope Senator Ludlam ends up, which is: we think taxpayers work very hard for the dollars that they earn, and we should be very mindful of those dollars that the parliament requires them to render to government in taxes. Those dollars are precious; they should be deployed to their best advantage. Government agencies and departments should be as efficient as they possibly can be. It is clear that we have a different view from you on that side of the chamber. I do not think there is any government department or agency that has reached administrative nirvana. They could all do better. (Time expired)