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

I thank Senator Hume for the question. I think Australians expect their government to deliver a responsible budget, an honest budget, a budget that deals with the economic circumstances of the time, a budget that delivers on the election commitments, and a budget that deals with and fixes the mess that we inherited from the former government—the mess in skills, the mess in energy, the debt and deficit that you left us, rising inflation, rising interest rates, a crisis in the energy markets in this country and an energy increase that you hid before the election.

Australians expect honest, responsible budgeting, and that is what they got last night—delivering on our election commitments; not adding to the inflation problem that we are currently dealing with, which I am not sure any of those opposite actually acknowledges is happening; delivering on our commitments; and dealing with the waste, the rorts and the mess that was left to us by you when you were in government for a wasted decade, which in five month we have started taking action on. We are taking action on skills, on child care, on gender equality, on infrastructure, on health, on aged care and on PPL—all of these areas that you could not have given a hoot about.

That is what we are doing. We are fixing the problems that were left to us. We are delivering on our election commitments, and that is what the people of Australia expect. They also expect some honesty from their government about the true state of the finances of this country—again, things that you hid in the dodgy budgeting that was done in deals with the National Party. We are fixing all of it up. (Time expired)