Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Smith, that was tried in the campaign and it didn't go very far, I must say! It's more about the content, I think, than the number of pages. This is a very successful plan that we've outlined—very successful, as evidenced by this. That's how successful this plan was.

The budget will be released in the normal way, with the papers that accompany it. I would say, because I do respect Senator Smith: we are going through a process, which we are being quite clear about, of looking at previous budget measures from the March budget, as to which ones of those should go ahead and which ones might not need to go ahead. We're looking at savings, where they can be sensibly found; we're implementing our savings on consultants and contractors—the audit of waste and rorts, indeed, that we are looking at—and we're going through it, program by program, with a big red pen—

Honourable senators interjecting—

Well, we are going to be fiscally responsible. We are not going to be the vandals that you were, where you would just get billions of dollars and go: 'You know what? Barnaby Joyce wants some money somewhere, so here we go! We'll chuck it over there. We'll chuck it over here—Building Better Regions Fund. Oh, sorry, Barnaby; here's some more money!'