Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Treasurer, Senator Gallagher. Australian Taxation Office data shows that, for every $3 a Tasmanian man retires with, a Tasmanian woman retires with $2. Your government and I both agree that super should be paid on paid parental leave and that we need to make sure we're doing it in a way and at a time that the budget can afford it. The cost of paying super on paid parental leave would be about $200 million a year. Congratulations again on the $20 billion surplus in last year's budget. Does the government still insist that the budget cannot afford to close the gap on retirement savings and start to pay super on paid parental leave?

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

I thank Senator Tyrrell for her question and agree with her about the need to improve women's superannuation balances. This has been a key priority. I know Senator McAllister has worked on this in previous parliamentary terms while chairing a very important Senate committee inquiry into this specific matter and into women's retirement incomes more generally. This is something the Treasurer, I and others across the government have said we want to do when we are in a position to do it. I would point out to Senator Tyrrell that the budget is still forecasting across the forward estimates deficits. We did have a very significant improvement and we are very pleased with the outcome of the first surplus in 15 years. That will help us repair the budget. It will help with our debt management, meaning we'll have to borrow less and pay less interest, so it will have flow-on impacts across the budget years. But the budget still has more pressures coming towards it than away from it, if I can put it that way. These are matters that we look at carefully. You've seen in the first two budgets our commitment to addressing some of the economic inequality that women face. We're doing it in terms of industrial relations reform. Part of the issue is that women earn less, so if we can increase wages, that flows on into their superannuation balances, as does having flexible work arrangements that allow women to participate and earn money, particularly through their caring years, and particularly with the motherhood penalty that women pay. All these areas are before the government. I think we've put a pretty good down payment on some of the initiatives, but there is more work to do. This is something the Labor Party has been looking at and will continue to look at, and, when we can, we will do it.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Tyrrell, a first supplementary?

Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Lambie and I have worked with the Greens and with Senator David Pocock to make you an offer that would see the government collect on average an extra $500 million each year from oil and gas companies. The cost of super on paid parental leave is estimated at around $200 million a year. If you're concerned about collecting enough money to pay super on paid parental leave and you're also against collecting the money, can you really say it's what you want?

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

I thank Senator Tyrrell for the question. I would say that the budget weighs up a whole range of different needs, and there isn't a shortage of areas where people are coming to me, as the Minister for Finance, wanting extra investment, whether it be in the NDIS—people have seen the pressure there—in the health budget, in the work that's underway in education, in the areas of defence or in managing Australia's debt. The budget has to do all of these things. When we work through the budget process, we have to weigh up a whole range of things on the revenue side and on the expenditure side, and we will do that. They're unrelated in the sense of how you put the question together. We've made some decisions around PRRT, but, at the same time, we are making a lot of room to invest in women and women's economic equality. I'll get the report from the task force soon, and that will inform further decisions. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Tyrrell, second supplementary?

Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I hear all that, but Labor supported paying super on PPL in 2021, when we had an $80 billion deficit. Labor doesn't support it now, with a $20 billion surplus. Can the minister nominate any figure for how big the surplus would need to be before the government is ready to honour its pre-election commitment to pay super on PPL?

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

In relation to the surplus—and we are pleased to have the first surplus in 15 years—it is important, but it is in the previous financial year, so it cannot be used to fund things going forward in an ongoing sense. That's why I drew your attention to the fact that the budget remains in deficit—and, I think, in structural deficit—so we've got a fair bit of work to do around that and about how we make room for new investments. As I said, there's no shortage of good ideas, really good ideas, that we would like to fund. There are hundreds and hundreds of them, and I think, when we try to put the budget together, we have to make a series of decisions. You'll see that in the last budget we made a number that, hopefully, will improve the lives of women, including in the payment system and with the some of our housing policies—in a whole range of areas—and we will continue to do that.