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

Being in government means you have to do a range of things. One of them is repairing the budget. We have to repair the budget so that we can ensure that, as needs grow—and we know they are growing—and as pressures on the budget increase, we have room to meet those pressures, be it in climate policy, social services, investments in women or investments in housing. All of those pressures are going to have to be met, so we have to get the budget on a better footing. We have also avoided borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for our services, avoiding interest payments on that debt, which again makes a difference in finding and creating room for those people that we want to invest in and for those programs we want to invest in.

In the next financial year, when the payments come in, there is a deficit. The budget is in deficit in four of the forward estimates years. So budget repair remains a challenge. Finding room to do good things for good people is also a priority. (Time expired)