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) (14:05): I thank Senator Darmanin for that important question. As senators would know, the Final Budget Outcome that the Treasurer and I released a couple of weeks ago shows the deficit comes in $6 billion better than forecast at budget time.

We have delivered a stronger budget than we inherited in every year since we have been in office. Opposition senators interjecting— Senator GALLAGHER: I know it's an inconvenient truth for you over there, but they're the facts. The budget over the last four years has been $230 billion, or almost a quarter of a trillion dollars, better than what we inherited.

And the outcome shows that the Albanese Labor government is the government that is responsible for the budget repair—indeed, for delivering two surpluses when those opposite couldn't deliver one—and for improving the budget bottom line in every year since. We have limited real spending growth. It has averaged two per cent over the four years we've been in government, which is half of what our predecessors averaged.

We have delivered substantial savings and reprioritisations of around $178 billion since we came to government in 2022, including $23.8 billion in 2025-26. We have returned about 75 per cent of all tax receipt upgrades to the budget bottom line. At the same time, whilst repairing the budget responsibly, we've made room for significant investments to support households with cost-of-living pressures and to strengthen Medicare and housing.

In addition to that, we've been dealing with automatic spending pressures across social security payments, natural disasters, veterans payments and aged care.