NATALIE BARR, HOST: Joining me now is Finance Minister Katy Gallagher. Good morning to you. So, we’ve just had the slowest two quarters of consecutive growth in nearly 20 years, outside the pandemic. We are limping, we are in a per capita recession. What’s the government going to do about it?
SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR WOMEN: Good morning, Nat, to you and your viewers. Look, the results yesterday show a slowing economy. This was expected, as you said in your intro, due to high inflation – but moderating inflation, thankfully – and higher interest rates and some of that global uncertainty we’ve been seeing. But importantly, the economy is still growing. But I – and the Government accepts that for many people, the combination of all those factors is, you know, why people are feeling they’re doing it so tough. And the Government remains focused on responding to that. So, how we can manage some of those cost-of-living pressures for households, because, you know, we get that they’re feeling the pinch right now.
BARR: So, what are you going to do about it?
GALLAGHER: Well, look, we’re in the middle of our Budget now. We’ve made no secret of the fact that we will always design those Budgets based on the economic circumstances of the time. We’ve been going through – the last 18 months or so have been a period of high inflation and so, some of our decisions have had to be mindful of that. We’re not wanting to make the inflation challenge harder and go against the work of the Reserve Bank in trying to lower that inflation. But we will make decisions based on what we need to do that’s right for people and right for the economy. And that’s why we, for example, took the decision around the tax cuts that will flow in 1 July. Because we are responding to that, but responding in a responsible way, and we’ll continue to do that, Nat. We’ll continue to look at what we need to do to make sure that we’re supporting people across Australia, also looking at how we work with business to make sure that they’re managing some of these pressures as well and do what we need to do in other areas of government. There’s no shortage of work that needs to be done.
BARR: Okay, the Government’s decided it’s going to pay super on parental leave. That’s from 1 July next year. Your own taskforce recommended this previously, you knocked it back. Why now and where are you going to get the money from?
GALLAGHER: Yeah, so, look, I don’t think we’ve ever knocked it back. What we’ve said is we’ve just got to find room in the Budget to pay for new investments, and this one’s an important one. It says to women, we value the care you do when you take time out of your career to look after kids, primarily. And it is primarily women that do that. But also, this is, you know – it sits outside some of those other workplace conditions like annual leave and all those other forms of leave, where super’s paid. It is a significant investment though, Nat, and again, we’ve found savings in the Budget, we’ve said no to other spending so that we can make the provision that’s needed for this in the Budget.
BARR: What savings? Where are you going to get the money from?
GALLAGHER: Well, we’ve announced $40 billion of savings in the last two Budgets. And we’re continuing that work. We look right through. I look right through every department, every area of expenditure, to make sure that we are, you know, saving money where we can, tightening our belt just like households are to make sure that we can pay for other investments like this that are also good for the economy and good for women.
BARR: Minister, could one of the savings possibly be that when Ministers go overseas, they don’t spend $8,000 on hire cars and staffers spend 10 items sent out for laundry for a 4-day overseas trip, like Tony Burke’s apparently did?
GALLAGHER: Well, ministers need to travel for work, and there’s expectations about that. And the information is then published. And I know people, ministers make a very strong effort to make sure that their costs are minimised when they travel. These are often costs that are incurred without their knowledge. If it’s cars that are organised that are part of the trip or part of a motorcade, I just came back from the G20, and I can imagine there were a lot of costs associated with that trip. But, you know, it is part of –
BARR: But we’re paying – okay, you’re sitting there saying, we’re heading into a recession. Australians were told, spend up big. We spent up big. Then we’re told to stop. All the interest rate increases happened. Now we’re heading into a recession. So we’re doing what you guys are saying, and then we’re hearing about $60,000 trips for important meetings with laundry for a 4-day trip and then $8,000 cars. Can’t you guys get a handle on that?
GALLAGHER: Firstly, I’m not saying – I haven’t been saying we’re heading into a recession –
BARR: Economists are though.
GALLAGHER: I acknowledge –
BARR: We’ve got Deloitte saying Australia is not in recession, but many Australians are. That’s a big consulting firm.
GALLAGHER: And I acknowledge that people are really feeling the pinch, so I’m not trying to get away from that, I’m just correcting what you put to me. I accept that government has to tighten its belt just as we are, every other household and business is, and when we pay, where there is government expenditure on travel, it has to be appropriate for what’s needed for attendance at a particular event. So, absolutely. And we have found savings in travel, in legal, in advertising, in consultancy spending. These are the areas where we have been reducing spending, because we are mindful that every dollar we spend is taxpayer dollars and we’ve got to do it wisely.
BARR: Okay, maybe we need a bit of an audit for some of that, because to a lot of Australians, $8000 on hire cars is ridiculous. But thank you very much for your time, Minister.