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

I thank Senator Smith for the supplementary. The Treasurer and I have made no secret, since coming to government, that pressure is building on the budget in a number of areas, primarily in areas like the NDIS, aged care, defence and servicing the debt that we inherited—almost a trillion dollars in debt. These are the big areas of pressure in the budget. We're dealing with some of them. We've got some reforms done with NDIS. We got the big Aged Care Bill through last week. We are managing a couple of those big areas of pressure, but there's still more work to do.

I would say to those opposite that always complain about spending in the budget: the biggest movement in the budget this year—$6½ billion—was an increase in veterans compensation payments. Why was that? It was because we actually staffed the Department of Veterans' Affairs so they could process the veterans entitlements and deal with the backlog we inherited from those opposite. And were you seriously talking about cutting that? (Time expired)