SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER
MINISTER FINANCE
MINISTER FOR WOMEN
MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE
MINISTER FOR GOVERNMENT SERVICES
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING
MONDAY, 3 MARCH 2025
SUBJECTS: Labor delivering more Medicare Urgent Care Clinics; Beer excise freeze to support hospitality industry; Budget management; USA and Ukraine; Tariffs; Increases to defence spending under Labor.
OLIVIA CAISLEY, HOST: The Government, meanwhile, has wanted to keep its focus on cost-of-living and health, what it thinks is its strong suit, announcing 50 new Urgent Care Clinics in a second term at a cost of $650 million. Finance Minister Katy Gallagher was here in the studio earlier today. Katy Gallagher, welcome to Afternoon Briefing, thanks for being here today. I wanted to start on the Government’s announcements regarding Urgent Care Clinics. So, you’ve pledged to open 50 new Urgent Care Clinics if re-elected. We’ve heard from independent MP Monique Ryan, she’s also a doctor, accusing your side of politics of pork barrelling with health regarding this. Ultimately, Peter Dutton again has made the same call. Why is this not a case of pork barrelling?
SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE: Well, these extra Urgent Care Clinics have been based on advice around hospital presentations and through, obviously, the work of the Department of Health and Aged Care. We have 87 now operational around the country, and these 50 additional will go to the next level of, you know, locations of having those urgent care clinics. So, this is based on data and information to the Government and I think many of them – well, I don’t understand the claims of pork barrelling, because I think they’re spread across the country and across electorates with various representatives in them. It’s really about where there’s gaps, where there’s high presentations to emergency departments, and where this model could work. But the commissioning of those extra 50 will be done exactly the same way as the last 87, and you work with primary healthcare networks to deliver that.
CAISLEY: On that point, though, Dr Ryan says that it could be useful to get some independent modelling to show the effectiveness of the current Urgent Care Clinics in place. To allay any concerns around pork barrelling, do you think that the Government should follow through and release that modelling prior to the election?
GALLAGHER: Well, there’s an independent evaluation underway of the Urgent Care Clinics, that was a decision we took when they got up and running. And so that’s based on a whole range of information that’ll come through. Some of the data I’ve seen coming through shows quite significant reductions in hospital presentations for less urgent categories, and so that is really pleasing. We know they’re being utilised, about 1.2 million visits. So, on the anecdotal feedback we’re seeing, they’re certainly successful. But yes, they will be independently verified.
CAISLEY: Yes, but that won’t come through until after an election, so do you think that that could be brought forward just to allay those concerns?
GALLAGHER: Look, I don’t think it can be, because it’s based on a whole range of datasets. Plus, many of them have only been operating for a few months. Like, I think probably the longest one’s been operating for about two years, maybe a year and a half. And so, it’s collecting data over that time. But these are, you know – I think the Medicare Urgent Care Clinics are highly supported by local communities. But the data which underpins where they go really is fed by a whole range of different inputs from the health system.
CAISLEY: Okay. The Albanese Government has delivered back-to-back surpluses, but when we look ahead, we are looking at years of deficits. Over the weekend you’ve unveiled a policy that will cost the Budget $95 million and only save beer drinkers, I believe it’s less than one cent a pint. How is that fiscally responsible?
GALLAGHER: Well, you’re right in the sense that we’ve delivered two surpluses, but we’ve also done a lot of the work. We’ve got about a $200 billion nominal turnaround improvement in the Budget, since we’ve came to office. That’s been because we’ve returned revenue upgrades to the Budget, we’ve found savings, and importantly we’ve put some reform work underway. So, aged care and NDIS for example, which is going to benefit the Budget over the medium term. We’ve made those decisions because we’re wanting to provide as much cost-of-living support as we can to households. This is an issue that’s been raised with us repeatedly by industry and I think, you know, from our point of view, we’ve tried to find cost-of-living for households, a whole range of areas, energy bill rebates, Medicare investments. But this one supports the hospitality industry and we know, you know, reports that they’ve been doing it tough. We think this is a reasonable and modest investment into supporting the hospitality industry.
CAISLEY: I can understand that it’s a tricky challenge, obviously, divvying up which sectors or industries get money, but there’d be a lot of community groups out there who’d love to see $95 million – what do you say to those that are disappointed who would like funding but don’t have it?
GALLAGHER: Yeah, there’s no shortage of calls on the Budget, that’s for sure. There’s a lot more ideas and good ideas than you can fund. And our job is to really work through all of that and find the right balance. Obviously, we’re looking at ways to support business, including small business, across the economy. But we’ve also invested heavily in community organisations over the term of government to make sure we are funding them in a proper way and they’ve certainly benefited from billions of extra dollars going in. And that’s part of why we’ve been trying to get the Budget in better shape, so we can make those priority investments. But you’re right, there’s always more to be done and there’s always more calls than we can support on the Budget.
CAISLEY: So, on that beer excise specifically, would you say that that was a fiscally responsible decision?
GALLAGHER: Well, we’re funding it through the Budget and our budget strategy has been about making sure we can find room for particular investments, find savings, reprioritise and make sure we can meet all the pressures. And part of our focus has been on cost-of-living and helping businesses and households with some of the pressures they’ve been seeing.
CAISLEY: Okay, on a different topic, Peter Dutton today said he was disappointed with the scenes we saw out of the White House’s Oval Office over the weekend between US President Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky. Are you comfortable with the way that Donald Trump spoke to and treated the Ukrainian President?
GALLAGHER: Well, I’m not sure there’s much use in me commenting on President Trump and his behaviour. People can see the vision and make their own decision about that. We have been absolutely clear that our support is for Ukraine and against the illegal invasion of their country and we are standing strong with Ukraine and with President Zelensky you know, throughout, as we have for the last couple of years and we will continue to do so. We have very strong support for him, the decisions he’s taken and the defence of his country.
CAISLEY: I understand how difficult it is, I guess, to stand up for Australian values but also keep an ally such as the United States on side. Do you think you could be more full-throated, though, in your support of Ukraine, given, you know, Donald Trump’s treatment of Volodymyr Zelensky?
GALLAGHER: Well, I think we have been clear in our support for Ukraine. It’s unequivocal, it’s there, it has been, we are the biggest non-NATO donator to Ukraine to help them, particularly with the Bushmasters program. And you know, people can make their own decisions about Donald Trump and the way he conducted that meeting, but our commitment and support for President Zelensky and the people of Ukraine remains strong.
CAISLEY: And the Coalition today has also indicated that a Coalition government wouldn’t send or doesn’t believe that peacekeeping troops should be sent to Ukraine. What’s the Albanese Government’s position?
GALLAGHER: Well, we’ll continue to work with likeminded countries on support for Ukraine. As I understand it, there’s been no request for personnel on the ground and none is being considered.
CAISLEY: In the background of all of this, we do have pending US sanctions on steel and aluminium. Your colleague, Treasurer Jim Chalmers, went to Washington last week for a variety of reasons, but in part to sort of plead our case on this. Where do you think we are at in those negotiations? Are you confident that Australia will be able to secure a carveout in these areas?
GALLAGHER: Well, we’re strongly arguing for that and again, the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister, the Foreign Minister and the Treasurer have been engaging actively with their counterparts in the US to explain, I guess, Australia’s position and standing up for our national interest. The fact that we have a trade surplus with the United States, they’re an important ally of ours and us of them, and so we think there’s good arguments for them to consider and we’ll continue to do that.
CAISLEY: Those tariffs, though, they’re due to come into play, I believe it’s in nine days now. Where do you think the US will go when it comes to Australia?
GALLAGHER: Well, I’m not going to speculate, because at the moment we are engaging actively with arguing for our national interest, which is for an exemption from those tariffs. The relationship is very strong. We’ve had good, solid engagement and we will continue to argue for an exemption from any tariffs that the US are considering.
CAISLEY: When it comes to the Budget, it’s due on 25 March. Do you think Australians can expect that Budget on that date or do you think we’ll head to the polls before then?
GALLAGHER: Well, obviously it’s the PM’s call when we head to the polls. But we, Jim and I, the Treasurer and I and our colleagues, have done a lot of work over the summer. There’s months of work that goes into a Budget, it’s scheduled for 25 March, and certainly all those decisions have been locked down.
CAISLEY: Do you think an economic budget update would suffice?
GALLAGHER: Well, we’re planning for a Budget on the 25 March. That’s the decision that was taken last year, we’ve scheduled it. As to when the PM might call an election, that’s entirely a matter for him. The Treasurer and I do our jobs, which is to make sure we’ve got the books in order and all of those decisions have been taken.
CAISLEY: Given the febrile geopolitical environment on the world stage, national security is sort of feeding into the upcoming election in ways that I don’t think could have been predicted maybe even six months ago. When it comes to defence, will an Albanese Government, when it comes to looking at that Budget, invest more in defence? Do you think that we should follow Europe in increasing GDP spending? On defence, I should say.
GALLAGHER: Well, we’ve increased defence spending every budget that we’ve had. It’s got a significant increase, over $50 billion that we’ve allocated to the Budget. So, part of the reason to the get the Budget in better shape was to allow for these investments as well. So, we will see defence spending as a share of GDP continue to rise. You know, we inherited a defence budget in a bit of a mess. Richard Marles has done a lot of work to clean that up, and we’ve made additional investments in that. National security is the number one responsibility of any government, and we take it very seriously and that’s why we found room in the Budget for all that extra funding.
CAISLEY: I understand that the percentage on defence spending as a percentage of GDP has increased, but we have seen Emmanuel Macron, for example, this morning saying that Europe should lift it to three to three point five per cent. That follows the US last week and Donald Trump suggesting that Europe should lift it to five per cent. What figure are you aiming for?
GALLAGHER: I mean, we take advice from Defence, the ADF, and from national security agencies about what investment is required to keep Australians safe and to keep Australia safe and we’ve acted on all of that advice. So, you know, as that continues we make decisions based on them, but I can absolutely categorically guarantee that defence spending has increased and will continue to increase over the medium term.
CAISLEY: So, to be clear, we will see additional funding in defence in the upcoming budget?
GALLAGHER: We have put in extra money into the Budget for defence and that grows year on year, so you will see that.
CAISLEY: Katy Gallagher, thank you so much for your time.
GALLAGHER: Thank you.
ENDS
