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

I thank Senator Payman for her question and her interest in all matters relating to the Australian federal budget. When parliament returns after this sitting week it will be to hand down the October budget, and the Treasurer and I announced last week that we will release the final budget outcome for the 2021-22 financial year this Wednesday.

I think we've been very upfront about the serious challenges facing the economy and the substantial pressures hitting the budget. One of the biggest pressures, of course, is the management of the trillion dollars of debt that was left to us by the former government. With higher interest rates, that debt will now cost the budget more to service, with billions and billions of dollars that we will need to find in the coming years that has not been provisioned for. That, of course, is on top of the funding that was promised by the previous government for the last financial year that did not get out the door to benefit Australians, much of which will pass over to the next financial year. Whether it's COVID support, delayed infrastructure projects or support for flood victims, there's at least $6 billion in there that those opposite promised to spend in the last financial year but didn't, and we will now have to pay for these as they flow over through the October budget.

The Treasurer and I have been very clear that the former government did not make provision for a lot of the costs that are going to have to be managed by this government. This is a government of grown-ups. This is a government that actually does its work, that is methodical in its analysis, that weighs up the evidence for policy decisions, that makes those often difficult decisions when we go through the budget process. That is our commitment to the Australian people. That's why they elected us; they wanted someone to manage the budget responsibly, to be fiscally responsible and to make room for all those areas Australians value in terms of their services and access to support.