QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for Finance, Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Women, Minister for Government Services and Manager of Government Business in the Senate) (14:09): I thank Senator Ghosh for the supplementary. While there are significant challenges across the global economy and there are challenges here in our economy that we have been upfront about, our budget in May was carefully targeted to ease pressure on households while continuing to repair the budget over time and, indeed, respond to some of those challenges in the economy—for example, in the area of productivity.

The budget was $44.9 billion better than the mid-year update and more than a quarter of a trillion dollars better than what we inherited. The fiscal discipline that we have shown over all of our budgets becomes even more important at a time of heightened global uncertainty, and we will continue to take the same approach, meeting the pressures that we have to meet but always looking for savings and being able to reduce the pressure on the budget and, indeed, lower the debt and lower the interest payments on that debt.

The PRESIDENT: Senator Ghosh, first supplementary?