SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER
MINISTER FINANCE
MINISTER FOR WOMEN
MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE
MINISTER FOR GOVERNMENT SERVICES
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
PARLIAMENT HOUSE
MONDAY, 10 FEBRUARY 2025
SUBJECTS: Senate; wages for public servants; donation reforms; Budget; long lunches for bosses.
JOURNALIST: It’s going to be a busy week in the Senate. What have you got in terms of the production tax credit deal? Are you hoping that it to go through with The Greens on board?
SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE: Look, we're pretty optimistic about production tax credits. So, obviously, the Opposition are not supporting it which is – I can't really work out why, considering it's a massive increase in investment in WA. So, really important we get it done. We'll be working with the rest of the Senate, but we're pretty optimistic. We've got it listed first, and we'd like to get it done as early as we can this week.
JOURNALIST: The Coalition's got some new PBO costings out this morning, claiming you have an $11 billion budget black hole because you haven't accounted for planned pay rises for public servants. You’ll either have to find $11 billion or sack 20,000 public servants. Is that a fair assessment?
GALLAGHER: No. I mean, I haven't seen the costing and I don't know what they asked the PBO to cost. But it's not my fault if the Opposition can't read the Budget papers. The Budget papers are clear about where the extra investment in the public service has gone and for how long, and all public service wages, along with indexation and all the rest of it, are accounted for in the Budget papers.
JOURNALIST: Is there any update on the donation reforms in talks with the Coalition? Are you still hopeful of getting some agreement this week?
GALLAGHER: Well, we've got that listed later in the week. Again, we're hopeful. We're working with the Opposition to try and get that done. We do think it's really important to get big money out of politics and to be more transparent and in better time, faster time. But it does rely on the Opposition, so we'll be looking for them to get that through this week.
JOURNALIST: Housing is clearly going to be a major election issue. There are some calls, The Grattan Institute today, saying that an extra $2 billion needs to be tipped into rental assistance. Would that be affordable for the Government? And what is coming up in terms of, I guess, rental assistance, especially for older Australians?
GALLAGHER: So, we've increased rental assistance twice across two budgets in recognition that that hadn't been increased for a long time, and people were under enormous pressure. So, it's increased by about 45 per cent under this government, which is historic in terms of rental assistance. We'll always look at what more we can do, because we get that people who rely on Commonwealth Rent Assistance are on low incomes, and housing costs really eat into your budget. So, we'll continue to look at ways we can help people. I mean, obviously building more supply, getting more housing out there, is going to also make a difference for rental prices, which is part of our work with the Housing Australia Future Fund and all those other programs.
JOURNALIST: What do you make, or what do you read into the results in Victoria, the by elections over the weekend? Werribee in particular, 17 per cent swing against Labor on primary. Do you read anything into that about the messaging from Labor on cost of living? Do you feel like it may not be cutting through in those outer suburbs?
GALLAGHER: Well, obviously, we look, we look at the results. But I think when it comes to the federal election, it doesn't change what our plans are. Which is, again, to continue to focus on cost of living, get the Budget in much better shape. Make sure we can do investments like the historic one we did on the weekend, into women's health, because that's the whole point of getting the Budget in better shape. We'll continue to do that, but we get people are doing it tough. So, it is hard to, you know, I guess, communicate that you're trying to help when people are really feeling the pinch. That's why getting inflation down has been so important. You know, when we came to government, had a six in front of it. It's now got a two in front of it. That will make a difference over time. But we have to remain focused, absolutely, solely focused on helping people with cost-of-living.
JOURNALIST: And sorry, just back on housing and that cost-of-living. Can we expect some big ideas from Labor in terms of the election campaign and promises that could tackle housing affordability?
GALLAGHER: Well, we've done a huge amount in the first two years. We really have. I mean, when you look at all of the programs we've put in place, the push we've got on supply, the increases in rent assistance. But yes, housing will be a key policy area in the election campaign. You'll expect, obviously, a Labor Government that has worked so hard in housing to continue to talk about housing, and things we can do to make it affordable, particularly for young people, but make sure that we're bringing everyone with us. So, you've got to look at homelessness all the way to home ownership, and you would expect that from a Labor Government.
JOURNALIST: How’s the work going on the March Budget?
GALLAGHER: Well, we’re in the thick of it now. It's like it didn't end from MYEFO. So, Jim and I worked over the summer. It continues, ERC is meeting regularly, we're working through all of the portfolios and working with ministers. So yeah, it's a pretty intense period right now.
JOURNALIST: One of the things that the Government's worked a lot on in recent years is upping the ante in terms of getting tax practitioners and others to behave better. And you recently released the costings from Treasury related to the FBT lunch proposal from the Coalition. Did the Treasurer and yourself incorporate the work you've done on ratcheting up the, I guess, the compliance environment, into the costing request for Treasury at all?
GALLAGHER: Well, that costing was, that work or that analysis was done by Treasury reporting to the Treasurer. And it was based on the information we have available from the Opposition, because they have not released their costing. I mean, if the Labor Party did this we would be absolutely torn to shreds, to announce a policy and not announce a costing. So, it's based on the publicly available information that was provided, and the Treasurer asked what the impact of that would be. And the advice from Treasury was clear, $1.6 billion or, if everybody took it up to its maximum extent, $10 billion.
JOURNALIST: So, there is no adjustment in that process? I mean the Treasurer’s got a PhD, he'd be familiar with research design of course. There was no adjustment made given the government's own work in compliance etc, over the past two years, following the PwC stuff to really think, well, how might that play out and enhance the compliance space?
GALLAGHER: Well, I mean, I think part of the issue with the free lunch policy is it would be very difficult to enforce any compliance around it based on the lack of information that anyone has about what Peter Dutton’s free lunch policy is. So it was, you know, some analysis that was provided. It was analysis that's important, as the costings had not been provided by the Opposition. Thank you.
ENDS
