SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER
MINISTER FINANCE
MINISTER FOR WOMEN
MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE
MINISTER FOR GOVERNMENT SERVICES
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC SYDNEY
WEDNESDAY, 26 MARCH 2025
SUBJECTS: Federal Budget.
KATHRYN ROBINSON, HOST: Now to more of our Budget news. Finance Minister Katy Gallagher joins me now from Parliament House in Canberra. Good morning, Minister.
SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE: Good morning.
ROBINSON: First up, on the tax cuts, five dollars a week to come down the track, what are you going to be spending yours on?
GALLAGHER: Well, I’ve been so busy I haven’t actually thought about that, now that you ask. But look, we accept that these are modest tax cuts that we think in combination with the tax cuts from last July, this will make a meaningful difference to households, especially when you include it with all of our cost-of-living help that’s in the Budget. We get that people are doing it tough and we’ve looked at ways to help out.
ROBINSON: These are top-up tax cuts, as you and the Treasurer have been calling them. Why did Labor choose tax tweaks over more authentic tax reform?
GALLAGHER: Well, I think in every budget, you look at what’s possible, what the constraints are. We have some constraints fiscally in this Budget, and you look at it based on the economic conditions of the time. So, we accept that cost-of-living is the main issue for people in the economy. We also have been trying to get the Budget in better shape. And a Budget is hundreds if not thousands of decisions layered on top of each other, so you can’t see one thing in isolation, you see it as a part of a package. We’ve tried some pretty modest but sensible tax reform this term, and a lot of it’s been stuck in the Senate. So, I think being realistic about how we can manage some of those changes is front of mind as well.
ROBINSON: Can you appreciate, Minister, why some might see these as more politically than economically motivated? They go across all electorates, low, middle, high-income earners. Why not be more targeted to people who need it most, those on the lower or middle incomes?
GALLAGHER: There is a lot in the Budget that’s focused on targeted support. You know, probably the largest part of the Budget is on our social security payments, and they are all targeted. And if you take JobSeeker for example, that’s increased by 22 per cent over our term in government, and that is a recognition that people on fixed incomes need additional support. But at the same time, I think it’s pretty reasonable, if you go out, everyone’s been feeling some of the inflationary environment that we’ve been living in. And this builds upon those tax cuts we introduced last July, or were passed last July, which really help out every taxpayer and puts a bit more of their hard-earned cash back in their pockets.
ROBINSON: You mentioned JobSeeker, there, Finance Minister. No changes there. I just want to play you something from Cassandra Goldie, from ACOSS.
CASSANDRA GOLDIE, CEO, ACOSS: We’re astounded, David, that the centrepiece of tonight’s Budget is more dollars for everybody except people with the least.
ROBINSON: Do you concede that perhaps more could have been done for those with the least?
GALLAGHER: Well, I think you can’t look at one budget in isolation. If you also look at all of the decisions we’ve taken, JobSeeker, the base rate for a single jobseeker, has increased by about $140 a fortnight since we came to government. And that is recognition that people on those payments needed extra support. There was a big increase in the payment and then there’s been indexation on top of that. So, we have tried to do what we can across the board. But you also have to look at other measures that we’ve got in place, like Commonwealth Rent Assistance that we’ve increased, even the Medicare investments, the original ones were targeted to those on concession cards. Again, that is targeted to people who would be living on JobSeeker.
ROBINSON: One of our listeners has just texted in, Minister, saying, ‘as a single mother on less than $75,000 per annum, I’d rather see increases to unemployment benefits than a few dollars in my pocket each week.’ What would you say to that listener?
GALLAGHER: Well, I understand that perspective. And in Single Parenting Payment, we did increase that significantly in recognition of single parents. These are all decisions we have to balance up, the pressures on the Budget are real, there’s a lot of ideas coming about how you could spend or how you could allocate the Budget, and we try to do it in a fair way where we acknowledge people on payments need extra support, but we also acknowledge that we’ve got to ensure that taxpayers are getting a fair deal, too, and that we’re looking at how we grow the economy over time.
ROBINSON: Are you concerned about how some of the measures are going to be funded? I mean, debt is racking up, KPMG has called it politically savvy but economically questionable, given that the tax cuts are being funded by debt, not from windfall gains. I believe our debt, public sector spending is pushing up the share of government sector dead into the economy, the highest it’s been since World War Two. Does the level of debt concern you and how that will be serviced?
GALLAGHER: Well, this has been front of mind since we came to government. So, debt is actually $177 billion lower under us than what we inherited when we came to government, and that I think gives you an indication of how seriously we have been looking at ways to pay down debt, lower the debt burden. We inherited debt post-COVID and ten years of the Liberal party, and it was a trillion dollars, forecast to be a trillion dollars then. We have lowered the interest bill on that debt. We’ve seen the biggest turnaround, nominal turnaround, improvement in the Budget in a first-term government ever, about $200 billion turnaround. So, we have worked out ways to repair the Budget but find room for all of these investments and help that we can offer households.
ROBINSON: Does that debt, though, moving forward and looking down forward estimates, leave Australia vulnerable to react to any possible future external shocks? We’ve got looming trade tariff wars, there’s actual wars going on in the world, we’re looking at China potentially pulling back on its growth. That fiscal space that’s referred to, an ability to respond to unforeseen shocks, are we in a position to protect ourselves should they come our way?
GALLAGHER: Well, we’re in a much better shape than we were when we came to government. As I said, the fact that we have delivered two surpluses, lowered the debt, lowered the interest burden on that debt and improved the deficit going forward means that we have been rebuilding those fiscal buffers. But we can’t just pretend that we don’t need to provide investments into services as well, and this is the balancing act the Budget has to do. Yes, repair the Budget and get those fiscal buffers ready for shocks that will come, inevitably. But also, be able to support Medicare, to support energy bill relief, to support students with their debt burden, all of those things have to happen at the same time.
ROBINSON: Some sectors of the small business area have criticised the Budget for not doing enough for small business. We know there’s 2.5 million small businesses in the country, they employ five million people. Independent senator Jacqui Lambie had this to say.
SENATOR JACQUI LAMBIE: Labor is not a friend of small business. Wouldn’t you think we’d have been sitting up here this week doing something for small business and making sure they received that $20,000 write-off going from 1 July? Small business has been absolutely killed in the last three years.
ROBINSON: What’s your response to that? I think one comment was, Labor’s the enemy of small business, given the instant asset write-off is now gone.
GALLAGHER: Well, we’ve been – the Opposition have actually been holding up our legislation to support small business through that twelve-month extension of the instant asset write-off, but we have found other ways to help small business. And you’re right, they are the engine room of the economy, whether it be in my space, like procurement and payment times to make sure that people are getting paid properly, or the energy bill relief, or for sole traders, the tax cuts that we’re putting on to top up the other tax cuts. They are all measures that will help and support small business.
ROBINSON: When you look at the initiatives in the Budget for women’s health, there’s certain pharmaceuticals that will be put on the PBS, there is I think $573 million to be spent on Medicare rebates on long-term contraceptives and IUDs, et cetera. Do you feel like a winner as a woman after this Budget?
GALLAGHER: Well, again, I’ve been so busy I haven’t really reflected on myself. But I think it’s a great package for women. And I think it’s great that we, in a Commonwealth budget, are talking about endometriosis, menopause, contraception, reproduction. I think all of those things have been undervalued and under-recognised for too long, and I was personally astounded that we hadn’t listed some of the new age contraceptive pills for the last thirty years. Like, it’s been thirty years since a pill had been added to the PBS. To me, that is extraordinary. It should have been done earlier. We know for many women they’re safer and have less side effects, and women have been voting with their feet and paying with their pocket because they’ve been doing it off the PBS and now this kind of gets a much better selection of oral contraceptives, IUDs, menopause treatment on the PBS.
ROBINSON: Finance Minister, just finally, I want to ask you about this.
GALLAGHER (GRAB): Keep smiling.
GALLAGHER: Hot mic, yeah.
ROBINSON: Craig Rucasle wants to know, were you talking to the Treasurer, were you talking to yourself, or were you talking to us?
GALLAGHER: It’s a bit of a story, but if anyone saw the front page of The Australian yesterday, where we’d had this photoshoot and Jim and I had been laughing and kind of smiling and then the Aus picked this very kind of sour-looking face of mine, so it was really to me – I was telling myself, that is not my natural photo, that one that was on the front of the paper. So, I was like, keep smiling! Because I might get caught like that again.
ROBINSON: Alright, well thank you for putting that to bed for us. I will definitely let Craig know. Busy day ahead for you I’m sure as it was last night. Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, many thanks for your time.
GALLAGHER: Thank you, bye.
ENDS
