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

I thank Senator McKim for the question. As senators will know, the main job of a federal government is to keep our citizens safe. This investment in our national security is important on its own, but it also has significant economic benefits across the country. The question goes to the impact on the budget. As people will be aware, we've forecast that over the forward estimates the impact will be in the order of $9 billion, of which $6 billion sits in the forward estimates as provision for the Attack class. The additional costs over the forward estimates will be met from within Defence's existing funding arrangements.

Over the medium term, we are looking at costs in the order of $50 billion to $58 billion. Beyond that, we are looking at around 0.15 per cent of GDP into the next 20 to 30 years. This investment is also just under 10 per cent of the overall investment that we make into defence. It is an important agreement, but that doesn't mean that those other areas of priority within the budget don't get the attention of the government as well. As you would know, we've made investments into key social policy areas like child care, like making medicines cheaper and like investing in fee-free TAFE. The budget will also have a significant investment in the cost of living around energy bills. We've also got the work that's coming our way from the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee that will also inform the government in its decision-making. It's not an either/or; we have to do all of these things.