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

We inherited a budget stuck in structural deficit. The Liberals and Nationals were the most wasteful governments since Federation. They not only oversaw consecutive budgets riddled with rorts and slush funds they also failed to deal with the policy challenges and the pressures impacting on the budget, which are now increasing, not decreasing. Those opposite delivered more consecutive deficits than any government since the 1920s—and remember those 'Back in black' mugs that were printed just that a little bit too soon? Remember that? We remember Senator Hume flashing her 'Back in black' mug around.

They doubled the deficit before the pandemic hit. They left us with a trillion dollars in debt, with very little to show for it, and they also propped up their budget numbers with a whole range of terminating measures, funding cliffs and a long list of zombie measures going back to 2016! In 2016 you had those zombie measures there, trying to make your budget bottom line look better than it was. We had to spend $4.1 billion in October to resolve some of these legacy issues inherited from the previous government, including providing funding certainty for programs that were underfunded or had expiring funding but were ongoing in nature such as environmental approval processes. How do you know they continue on 1 July in a new financial year! Information technology programs such as modernising business registers—again, let's have a look at the total price of that program once it's finalised! And, in this budget, we are continuing to do that. We're continuing to find funding cliffs. The adult public dental services, the myGov platform, the My Health Record, the high-risk terror offender program—they're not funded! Not funded! (Time expired)