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 NEWS BREAKFAST
MONDAY, 24 MARCH 2025
SUBJECTS: Federal Budget; extended energy bill relief for households; cost-of-living relief; electrification; Dutton’s return to the office orders.
BRIDGET BRENNAN, HOST: Back home, the federal Treasurer is remaining tight-lipped about further relief from the cost-of-living in tomorrow night's budget. The Government has already ruled out a surplus, saying the next one remains to be seen. It's found $2.1 billion in savings this year, but there'll be plenty of new spending including another round of rebates on household power bills.
JAMES GLENDAY, HOST: The Finance Minister, Katy Gallagher, joins us now from Canberra. Minister, good morning.
SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE: Good morning.
GLENDAY: The news about rebates was confirmed yesterday. Will you also be offering help with electrifying households and industry to try to keep long-term downward pressure on gas and emergency prices?
GALLAGHER: Yeah, James, obviously that announcement yesterday, it's important, it helps households with the cost of electricity, energy in their house. Obviously, we put a lot of effort and a lot of money into supporting households with this energy transition. And the big part of that has been Rewiring the Nation. I mean, making sure we’ve got an energy grid that can take renewables into it, and you’ll see more of that. That's our commitment to support the transition to more renewables into the system, we need to build the system to make sure that it can do that, and in the meantime, we're helping households with the energy bill rebates.
GLENDAY: So, we should expect some sort of an announcement around electrification tomorrow night?
GALLAGHER: I'm saying what we've already done is put in place in the last three budgets, a huge amount of investment into making sure our energy system can take renewables, and we're also helping with energy bill rebates. So, we've already got – you have to see a Budget building on the previous budgets that go before it. That's where we've been focused with Chris Bowen's work, with all of those big energy projects, with Tanya Plibersek approving more renewables projects, and that works hand-in-hand with the energy bill rebates.
GLENDAY: You’ve got a statement saying that the Government has found an additional $2 billion in savings and reprioritisations. Where has that money come from?
GALLAGHER: Well, we look at each budget across the public service to see what programs we can – you know, we no longer need to do, where we can reprioritise within a program. So, some of it comes through that. A big chunk of it comes through reducing the reliance on contractors and consultants, which is something, again, we've done in each budget. And you'll see that through tomorrow night, in the Budget tomorrow night. And that's a big part of the $2.1 billion. But that is in addition to the savings we've found before. So, across this Government, we've found $95 billion worth of savings, which has allowed us to repair the budget, but also put investments into those things that people care about, like Medicare and aged care and the NDIS and all of those services.
GLENDAY: Just on budget repair, the Government is speaking a lot about fiscal discipline. The Treasurer was on our show last week talking about this. But tomorrow night, won't the books show that Australia is in a structural deficit and that out for the next decade, we'll be spending more than we're taking in?
GALLAGHER: Well, we've made no secret of the fact that the Budget is under pressure. We've seen a big improvement in the Budget and in lowering the debt and lowering the interest on our debt, because we have been so responsible in our budgets. Where we've had upwards revisions, we've paid down debt, we've banked that and we haven't spent it. But yeah, the Budget is under pressure and that's unsurprising when we have things like defence, health, aged care – all of those areas which are placing pressure. And I think that the approach we've taken is to manage that and manage that over time, and we'll continue to do that.
GLENDAY: Do you have a rough year when the Budget will return to surplus?
GALLAGHER: Well, that remains to be seen and there are obviously decisions that need to be taken across, you know, the forward estimates, in future budget processes. But every budget that we have done, we have found savings. We found $95 billion worth of savings. And that's helped to get the Budget in much better shape. The deficits are much lower than they would have been under the former Government, and that’s been a big focus of ours when we’ve been putting our budgets together. But you can't just snap your fingers and cut services like the Opposition are talking about because that hurts people out there who rely on Government services to help them. And our approach has been to look at this carefully, methodically and responsibly to find room to pay for things where we can and to find savings where we can. And over time, that will return the Budget to balance.
GLENDAY: Some of your colleagues, Minister, and I'm not sure if this is helpful or not for you, are quoted in the media seemingly managing expectations, calling for spending restraint. Given that, should we expect that there won't be too many big-ticket announcements announced tomorrow night?
GALLAGHER: Well, you'll see a responsible budget. You've seen some announcements that will be already made, that will be in the Budget tomorrow night. And you will see restraint. I mean, I can’t tell you – as Finance Minister, I probably get a hundred good ideas for one that we can do. And there’s enormous restraint in this Budget. But it’s also important when households are doing it tough, cost-of-living pressures are there, that the Government responds to those. And so, you’ve seen that with Medicare, you’ve seen that with energy bill rebates, and you’ll see that in the approach tomorrow night.
GLENDAY: I'm not sure how much your colleagues would like being told no, but that's another matter.
GALLAGHER: They don't like it!
GLENDAY: Just finally, Minister, unions are today claiming the Coalition's plans to get more public servants to work from home could eventually affect one in three workers, assuming there’s some sort of a flow on to the private sector. The Opposition says that the statement is a lie. Do you think that one in three workers being affected by this is an exaggeration?
GALLAGHER: Well, I think a lot of people have spoken to me since the Coalition came out saying that everyone needed to be frog-marched into the office. A lot of people have come to me saying that they are concerned about that. So, I would think that it’s not just in the public sector, it’s across the private sector as well. And it just shows the Coalition are out of touch. I mean, working from home is something many, many Australian workers do. I do it all the time, I imagine that you do it, James. Lots of working people manage their busy lives with a combination of being in the office and working from home, and I think that this idea that you can only be productive if you're sitting at a desk is a very out of date kind of view that's been put by the Coalition. So, I can imagine people are worried about that.
GLENDAY: Alright, Katy Gallagher, thank you so much for your time this morning.
GALLAGHER: Thank you very much.
ENDS
