SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER
MINISTER FINANCE
MINISTER FOR WOMEN
MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE
MINISTER FOR GOVERNMENT SERVICES
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
TODAY SHOW
MONDAY, 24 MARCH 2025
SUBJECTS: Federal Budget; extended energy bill relief for households.
SARAH ABO, HOST: For more, we are joined now by Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, live from Canberra. Good morning to you, Minister. So, there is a lot riding on Tuesday's budget, as you know. Australian households will be hoping 2024 onwards looks better for them than the past three years. Will it?
SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE: Morning, Sarah, thanks for having me on. Well, I think as the Treasurer said in relation to a couple of those really difficult years, when inflation was high and that was pushing prices up, that we have turned the corner there, we’ve got inflation back into band. And so, that's a really good outcome. And we acknowledge that people have been finding it tough, and that's why we have placed such a high premium on finding effective cost-of-living support, some of which has been those energy bill rebates.
ABO: I guess the issue with that, Minister, is that you promise to cut power bills by $275 during the 2022 election, you failed to deliver on that. Are these rebates simply a $1.8 billion election bribe?
GALLAGHER: Well, you'll notice this is an extension of two previous rounds of energy bill rebates. And so, we've found a way where we could provide that support to households when electricity prices were rising, and that is the result of a war in Ukraine, global inflation pressures. And so, we've responded to that. You have to make these decisions based on the information you have at the time. We saw electricity prices going up. And so, we've worked out a way to provide that support to households and small business. So, this is the third round, in a sense, of providing that energy bill rebate, because we acknowledge that this is one of those key pressures for households.
ABO: Will there be further rounds though? Because eventually this will end and then there will be more pain. I mean, you need to look at other things, don't you? Perhaps increasing gas supply to legitimately bring down those power prices. Otherwise, what does happen to households when those rebates end?
GALLAGHER: Well, absolutely. We need to make sure that there's enough gas in the system. And Madeleine King's been working away on that to ensure that that's the case. But you also need to have your eye on the fact that we are transitioning our energy system to more renewables. It's the cheapest and cleanest form of energy. And so, that's requiring investment from government as well. But while we're doing that, we're providing that help to households because that's important too. And it’s not a measure that can go on in an ongoing sense, but as we transition and as we stabilise the energy grid, we would expect those electricity prices to stabilise too.
ABO: You're effectively giving taxpayers back their own money to pay for bills that are soaring with no end in sight, this is the issue as we move to renewables. Their bills are going to keep increasing and we have been warned of more deficits to come in the years to come. When are we going to see the Budget return to balance? You made a big deal of getting the Budget back in the black last time. Have you now given up on that?
GALLAGHER: No, we haven't given up on it at all. And in fact, we have delivered those first two surpluses in over a decade. That's been an important part of getting the budget back into better shape. The deficits are in better shape than the ones that we inherited. But we also need to acknowledge and be responsible about the fact that people expect their services to be funded. And that's important as well. So, government's got a couple of jobs to do. One, get the Budget in better shape, repair it, pay down debt, lower the interest costs on that debt. But we've also got to make sure that Medicare works. We've got to make sure that families can send their children to early education and care and afford it. We've got to make sure people can afford those energy bills. And so, the Budget has to do a number of things. But yes, the idea is that over time, you would get that Budget back into balance. But there are a lot of pressures on the budget as well. And a lot of people expect services to be funded quite appropriately and this Budget will do that as well.
ABO: I mean, it's an eye-watering amount of money that we're looking at spending in this next Budget, right? Billions upon billions of dollars. It almost sounds on the surface, irresponsible. And there are some within your own ranks urging for restraint. Are you listening?
GALLAGHER: Well, there's a lot of restraint in this budget. I can tell you as Finance Minister, I probably have a hundred ideas, of which we can proceed with one. So, we say no a lot, and there's no shortage of ideas coming both from my colleagues, but also from stakeholders who want to see more investment in their area. Part of landing a Budget is thousands of decisions, really, but a lot of it is about restraint. And also prioritising those areas where we know we can make the biggest difference for households. So, you know, that's why we've got this huge investment going into Medicare, because we know that matters to people, that they can get health care without worrying about having to pay for it or getting their credit card out. And that's why the government needs to step in in these areas to make sure it's properly funded. And you'll see that in the budget as well.
ABO: Katy Gallagher, thanks so much for your time.
ENDS
