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

Please restrain me from mentioning commuter car parks here and sports grants. What are those other big hidden buckets of funds that had nothing attached to them? To talk to us about wasteful spending—I mean, come on! You were the experts in it! Let's just put a big chunk of money and see if we can allocate it to all of our MPs' electorates during an election campaign—that was your approach to budgeting. There was the waste and the rorts and the mismanagement that we have fixed in our budgeting.

We've returned money to the budget. We've found savings. We've supported projects where they can be supported. We've reduced deficits and produced surpluses. We've lowered the interest costs on our debt. We have done all of that, and we've still found room to support people with cost-of-living pressures. I will not take a lecture from those opposite about wasteful spending.