Budget cuts to come from across all of government, not just infrastructure
Further to Murph’s reporting, Katy Gallagher told ABC Radio RN that not all of the $22bn in “savings” (budget parlance for cuts) will come from infrastructure:
It’s not exclusively infrastructure. We are finding savings across government. We have gone to every single department and ask them to look at their programs to identify programs that don’t need to be done any longer or don’t align with government priorities and where we’ve been able to return some money to the budget we’re doing that.
The other part of it is actually not adding new funding to things but using existing funding to fund some of our our priorities. So it’s been a very useful exercise and I think $22bn is a pretty reasonable figure to have achieved over just, you know, a couple of months in government.
Key events
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Benita Kolovos
Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, has announced $1.6bn for new and upgraded schools and kindergartens if re-elected in November.
The package includes $850m to fund works at 89 existing primary and secondary schools and $25m to plan for the construction of 25 new schools in growing suburbs. This includes:
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Six new primary schools and two secondary schools for the south-eastern suburbs.
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Three new primary schools, one prep to year nine school, a secondary school and a specialist school for the west.
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Five primary schools, a secondary school and a specialist school for the north.
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A new primary school at Fishermans Bend in the CBD.
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Two new primary schools near Geelong.
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A new primary school at Leneva, near Wodonga.
Some $19m will also be spent to attract and retain teachers, including via an improved graduate program, another program to support experienced teachers back into the workforce and a migration support service to help principals recruit teachers from overseas.
Speaking at Seaford North primary school in Melbourne’s south-east on Monday, the premier said:
This is about every child getting every chance in the education state. It’s about thousands of jobs and it’s about making sure that the best teaching and learning is matched by the best facilities.
68th International Whaling Commission meeting wraps
The 68th meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting has wrapped up in Slovenia and Australia now has a vice-chair in Dr Nick Gales.
The Australian Marine Conservation Society had a bit to say about the meeting:
The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) has welcomed the IWC’s agreement of a critical resolution to tackle the threat of ocean plastic pollution and the failure of attempts by pro-whaling nations to undermine the global moratorium on whaling.
The IWC’s precarious financial situation has also been addressed for now, but many other commitments were postponed for consideration over the next two years before the next meeting of the IWC in Peru in 2024.
Particularly disappointing was the manner in which pro-whaling countries chose to walk out of a key session so the proposal to establish a South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary, led by Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, could not be voted on, a proposal that has been before the commission for more than a decade.
“The tactics used by pro-whaling countries at the meeting to block a vital whale conservation measure were shameful,” said Darren Kindleysides, the CEO of AMCS.
With the world’s whales and dolphins facing a wider range of threats today than ever before, we need nations to work together to ensure their future. Instead, this demonstrates the lengths to which some countries will go to ensure sanctuaries for whales and dolphins are not established. Many of those same countries were also trying to push for the global commercial whaling moratorium to be lifted at this meeting, a push that thankfully was once again not successful at this meeting.
Speaking of the CSIRO, Peter Hannam has a story on strategies its leadership is looking at to secure more funding – which is not being welcomed by the staff.
Seems like there is more of a spotlight on funding arrangements, which is well overdue:
We expect better from our national scientific research body.
The CSIRO has been a trailblazer & trusted source of expertise for Australians. It’s time they returned to that leadership position.
https://t.co/r1yWnxJ3EV— David Pocock (@DavidPocock) October 23, 2022
Barnaby Joyce and Tanya Plibersek on Netball Australia and Gina Rinehart
Over on the Seven network this morning, Barnaby Joyce (who once received a $40,000 “prize” from Gina Rinehart which he had to hand back) had a lot of opinions on Netball Australian players expressing opinions (a quick recap here):
Joyce:
Yes. Like most other people. You’ve got $15m of somebody else’s money. It’s been given to you. How about saying thank you rather than, “oh, yeah, we don’t want it.” And now the money’s gone, they’re going, “oh, guess what? We haven’t got the money to pay our players and to cover the financial situation that Netball Australia fights in”.
We’ve already seen people are coming out now, such as Australian Women’s Golf saying, “we’ll take the money.” There are a lot of other causes. There are people … returned servicemen and returned servicewomen sport who are saying, “like, we’ll have the money.”
Like, they’ve got to realise … if you don’t make the money, be really, really careful of the person who offers you the money or you won’t get the money.
Host: Yeah, Tanya [Plibersek], this was over a comment made by Gina Rinehart’s father, who died 30 years ago. He said it 38 years ago. Where do you stand on this?
Plibersek:
Well, I think it’s a matter for Netball Australia. And what I would say is I don’t mind hearing from the players. I think they’ve got a right to express their opinions, and this is a terrific successful team. I wish —
Host: But where do you stand, Tanya?
Plibersek:
Well, I’m telling you where I stand. I wish them all the best in getting new sponsorship. They’re a terrific, successful team, and I really hope there are other Australian businesses out there who are prepared to get in behind women’s netball and back it. It’s a great sport played by millions of Australians –
Host: Look, we all back the netballers –
Plibersek:
And this is a particularly successful team.
Host: – as far as their sporting prowess –
Plibersek:
Well, really? Do we? Because Barnaby’s saying that they’re idiots for expressing their opinion.
Host: Well, I think a lot of people are questioning them this week …
Joyce:
Yeah, well, do you know, someone, Tanya, who’s got a lazy $15m in their top drawer? Tell us who they are so we can give it to the netballers. Otherwise, yeah, it was crazy what they did. Very foolish.
Barr: Yeah, Tanya, where do you stand on this actual issue … do you back Gina Rinehart for taking the money away from them, or do you back the netballers for harking up over this?
Plibersek:
Well, I think the netballers have a right to express an opinion. And, you know, I absolutely think they’ve got a right to express an opinion. Good luck to them. And I really do hope that they find other businesses that want to support them, because they’re a great team, a successful team, and I’d like to see women’s netball backed.
Calla Wahlquist is running a blog on the floods, which you can find here:
CommSec releases annual state of the states report
CommSec’s state of the states report is out and there has been some movement for the top spots, AAP reports.
(Cruelly, the greatest nation on earth – Queensland – was robbed as number one, but we did win the State of Origin so there is that)
From AAP:
Tasmania and Queensland are the fastest-rising state economies as a plunging housing market helps drag NSW to near the bottom of the leaderboard. The island state rose from third to first place among states and territories in CommSec’s quarterly State of the States report, which gauges the economic “momentum” of each region.
CommSec’s chief economist, Craig James, said Tasmania had returned to the top of the rankings due to consistently high scores across all indicators.
Queensland’s second position was its highest place in the 13-year history of the survey as strong population growth and low relative unemployment buoyed its economy. The state enjoyed a population boom during the Covid-19 pandemic as residents abandoned the larger capitals for Brisbane and other locations like the Gold Coast.
“When looking at annual growth to get a guide on economic momentum, Queensland had annual growth rates that exceeded the national average on five of the eight indicators,” James said.
NSW, which ranked ahead of only the Northern Territory, was weighed down by its low growth in housing finance as Sydney experienced the sharpest fall in property prices of the country’s major cities. Victoria dropped to fifth in the rankings after soaring to first place in July after the lifting of Covid-related restrictions.
The southern state lagged others when it came to relative economic growth and dwelling starts.
James said much of the states and territories’ future economic performance would depend on how they responded to a period of rising interest rates.
The report weighs the recent performance of states and territories across eight key indicators against what is considered “normal” for each region to produce a measure of each region’s economic momentum, rather than directly comparing figures for each state.
Based on a comparison of annual growth rates instead, the NT had the strongest economic growth in the country with a 29.9% increase in activity, followed by Queensland with 21.3%.
NSW recorded the best employment growth at 9.2%, nearly double that of its closest competitors.
How the states fared
1: Tasmania
2: Queensland
3: ACT
4: Western Australia
5: South Australia
6: Victoria
7: New South Wales
8: Northern Territory
Save the Children want the government to make sure there is ongoing funding in the budget to help children across the globe deal with Covid, conflicts and the climate:
The charity’s CEO, Mat Tinkler said:
In a world of Covid-19, global conflict, and increasingly severe bushfires, floods and other disasters, in the shadow of what many children perceive as the existential threat of climate change, this is truly a time of crisis for children.
It’s an incredibly difficult time in history to be a child, with so many factors having the potential to cause significant harm to the development, learning and lifelong opportunities of an entire generation.
Not seriously investing in the safety, resilience and development of Australia’s children is to not invest in the future of our country as a whole. We implore the new federal government to dig deep and do the right thing for our kids, who have both so much to lose and so much to gain.
King: two new regional grants programmes to be launched
Speaking to Newcastle radio 2HD, the infrastructure minister, Catherine King, said there would still be a lot in the regional spending bucket when it came to her portfolio:
The first thing is that we’ve had to clean up what’s been a pretty confusing and difficult mess of programmes across the regional portfolio. It’s been one of the areas that’s taken quite a substantial amount of my time.
So what we’re planning to do is introduce two new regional grants programmes. One that will be a competitive round for local councils and not-for-profits that replaces the Building Better Regions Fund that the previous government had and that there was such a damning audit report on. It will be a much more transparent, consistent annual grants round that we will provide funding through to local communities.
The other is one that’s based on precincts, so that where you’ve got places like Newcastle or other parts of Lake Macquarie, for example, where you know that the university campus is going to really change the dynamic of a CBD. You can need a precinct where you’ve got better retail outlets or you actually want to put arts and culture in.
The precinct programme is for those larger-scale programmes, and we’re looking for local councils and state governments in particular to bring those projects forward. But there’s also lots of things that are also being announced in the budget that the money will start to flow through for Newcastle, including the port of Newcastle and the University of Newcastle, and that money will be in the budget as well.
Gallagher: spending audit is an ‘ongoing piece of work’
And it will continue, Katy Gallagher says:
My view is finance minister is that this is a process that should keep going. We’ve identified obviously, some of that the short term work and that will be reported in the budget.
But this spending audit should should keep going. We should do it in every budget, just to make sure that we’re constantly looking at ways we’re spending money and I think the Australian public would expect us to do that, that it’s not always adding in new spending when there’s … need that arises, and there will be, but we’re looking at existing expenditure as well and how we can reuse that or … realign it with … new investments.
So, yes, it’s an ongoing piece of work in short, and I think the other thing I’d say is … the audit has identified areas where we just need longer to work through, as a finance department, to see whether there’s opportunities for, again, reprioritisation or savings.
Budget cuts to come from across all of government, not just infrastructure
Further to Murph’s reporting, Katy Gallagher told ABC Radio RN that not all of the $22bn in “savings” (budget parlance for cuts) will come from infrastructure:
It’s not exclusively infrastructure. We are finding savings across government. We have gone to every single department and ask them to look at their programs to identify programs that don’t need to be done any longer or don’t align with government priorities and where we’ve been able to return some money to the budget we’re doing that.
The other part of it is actually not adding new funding to things but using existing funding to fund some of our our priorities. So it’s been a very useful exercise and I think $22bn is a pretty reasonable figure to have achieved over just, you know, a couple of months in government.
Cait Kelly has been following the wait in Echuca as the flood waters rise:
For those unable to look away from the out of control trolley car that is UK politics, we have you covered here:
Coalition releases budget wishlist
The Coalition have released its demands for tomorrow’s budget, quoted below.
In the short term the government must:
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Build upon the strong position the government has inherited from the Coalition and not deteriorate the bottom line. Labor has inherited the lowest unemployment rate in decades, economic growth over 3%, and an improving budget bottom line. A high-taxing, high-spending traditional Labor budget will only make the Reserve Bank’s job harder next Tuesday.
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Put downward pressure on inflation and interest rates without increasing taxes. The government should heed the calls of stakeholders and the community to commit to the Coalition’s tax to GDP cap of 23.9% to put a speed limit on spending and include a plan to return inflation to within the Reserve Bank’s target of 2-3%. The government’s budget cannot respond to growing cost of living pressures with increased taxes.
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Deliver relief to supply side pressures in the economy by increasing productivity and participation. The government must reject changes to industrial relations that will start a wage-price spiral and damage the productivity of our struggling small and family businesses.
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Avoid breaking promises made to the Australian people at the election to bring down power bills by $275, to implement the stage-three tax cuts in full, to bring down the cost of living and to increase real wages.
Tasmanian and Queensland flood warnings
That is continued:
Tasmania
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Ten emergency warnings are current.
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A watch and act alert is in place for residents along the Liffey River, while advice alerts have been issued for those on the North Esk, Macquarie, Meander, South Esk, St Pauls and Lake rivers in the north.
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Concerns have eased despite up to 45mm of rain falling across the North Esk, South Esk and Macquarie River catchments.
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The Bureau of Meteorology says showers will clear about the north-west on Sunday but more rain is on the way.
Queensland
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Six emergency alerts are active.
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A watch and act alert is current for Biggenden and Dallarnil in the Burnett region, while residents in Brisbane, Redlands City, Noosa, on the Fraser Coast and at Gympie are subject to advice warnings.
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A major flood warning has also been issued for the Macintyre River, which is expected to peak at up to 9.9 metres at Goondiwindi early Monday.
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The state’s south-east corner was soaked overnight into Sunday, with falls of more than 150mm in places.
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An isolated fall of 156mm was recorded at Canning Creek, with more than 100mm at Maleny on the Sunshine Coast and over 80mm at Bellthorpe in the Moreton Bay area.
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Moderate flooding could also occur along the Mary River at Tiaro from Sunday after rainfalls of 170mm.
Flood warnings across NSW and Victoria
AAP has a wrap of the flood warnings:
Victoria
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Sixty-six emergency warnings are in place.
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Evacuation orders remain for Echuca on the Murray River.
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Residents at northern Gunbower, Leitchville, Patho, Torrumbarry, Tocumwal and Wharparilla have been told to seek higher ground, as have those downstream of Rochester and at Seymour, north of Melbourne.
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Authorities say it is too late to leave at Barmah and Lower Moira on the Murray and not safe to return to homes in Kerang and Bunbartha.
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Flooding also continues on the Goulburn River downstream of Shepparton, on the Barwon downstream of Inverleigh, along the King River and Seven Creeks downstream of Euroa.
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Major inundation is occurring near Echuca after water reached levels not seen in almost 30 years on Saturday.
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An emergency warning for Loddon Weir also remains, along with a landslide warning for alpine residents at Bogong and Falls Creek.
NSW
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There are 124 current emergency warnings.
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Evacuation orders are in place for Moree, Terry Hie Hie, Gunnedah and Carroll in the state’s north, the Riverina town of Narrandera and Mudgee in the central west.
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Residents have also been ordered to higher ground at Cummeragunja, Mathoura East, the Murray Valley and Moama on the Murray River.
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The Murray is forecast to peak Sunday into Monday.
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Flooding continues in multiple locations across the state including on the Lachlan River at Forbes, the Macquarie River at Warren, the Northern Rivers in Nimbin, at central western Wellington and Cowra, and in Bourke, Brewarrina and Wilcannia in the west and northwest.
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Rain is falling across much of NSW, with severe storms possible in the east, with locally heavy falls leading to flash flooding, gusty winds and possibly hail.
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Natural disaster declarations have been made in more than 40 local government areas.
Hume: push for internal diversity ‘coming from the Liberal party more broadly’
The shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, was also on ABC radio RN where she was asked about the lack of women in the Liberal party.
Patricia Karvelas tells her the Liberals, particularly in the lower house, is a “sea of men” and whatever the opposition is doing to increase the number of women in the party is not working. (That’s because it’s a target, not a quota, and targets don’t work, but anyway … )
Hume:
That’s exactly right … which is why we want to make sure that each one of those programs that’s running in all the different states is coordinated, that we’re adopting best practice and that we make sure that there is a singular focus on improving the gender diversity and diversity more broadly of … our political ranks.
It is really important not just because you want to better reflect the community that you represent, but also because when you have diverse groups around the table, better decisions get made, better decisions make for better policy, better policy makes for better politics.
So we know that there is an imperative to do that. This is not something that’s coming from the women in the Liberal party. This is something that’s coming from the Liberal party more broadly and I think there is a collective view to focus on (that).
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, is on ABC Radio RN talking about the $22bn in “savings” following the budget spending audit.
Murph reported on that here:
Gallagher says it comes from the whole of government and includes infrastructure.
Some infrastructure spending will be “re-profiled”, Gallagher says. What is “re-profiling?” It’s a couple of things – moving some projects that aren’t ready yet, or reallocating some of the funding to other projects.
Good morning
Amy Remeikis
Hello and welcome to budget week – your second one for this year.
Jim Chalmers will deliver his first budget tomorrow. Today is going to be filled with some more speculation about what is – and isn’t – in it.
It’s a “responsible” budget that will be “family friendly” and “steady and stable”.
What that translates to is “don’t expect a lot of treats”. Chalmers is balancing inflationary pressures with rising cost of living and stagnant wage growth. What that means is a budget that won’t actually deliver a huge amount of cost of living relief, which is going to disappoint a lot of people.
There is also going to be a pretty big axe fall through the infrastructure section, with the government reviewing and re-allocating Morrison government projects announced in the March budget. That was part of the “end pork-barrelling” commitment but it has the Nationals in a tizzy already, given regional Australia was a big winner of a couple of deals within the Coalition government. So prepare for that battle.
The parliament doesn’t sit until tomorrow but the MPs are starting to file in. It might be budget week but that’s not all that has the government occupied. It’s also going to introduce its industrial relations bill, where a political fight is brewing over multi-employer bargaining.
There are amendments to privacy laws after the Optus and Medibank data breaches brought forward things the government was going to do a little bit later.
And there is also the balancing act that is the Senate. There’s only about 11 sitting days in the red chamber until the end of the year (budget estimates takes out sitting days the house has) and quite a lot of legislation the government wants passed. It means there is speculation another sitting week will be added to December already brewing. The government says it’s not needed, but that hasn’t stopped people from circling it in their calendars just in case.
We’ll keep an eye on all the Canberra shenanigans. We’ll also be watching the floods – the level of the Murray is still rising at Echuca as locals shelter behind sandbags and a huge levee.
If you’re in the flood zone, we are thinking of you. We know it’s one of the scariest waits imaginable. We’ll keep you updated as information comes through.
For those following along with us today, welcome and I hope you have your coffee. I’m on my second already and a third is on the way. Ready?
Let’s get into it.
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