Category Archives: Katy Gallagher (Australian politician)

Finance minister vows to slash more consultants and accuses Coalition of importing Trump’s Doge agenda

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Exclusive: Katy Gallagher says focus will be ‘on driving cultural change’ within public service if Labor wins the election

The finance minister has vowed to continue slashing the government’s use of consultants and rebuilding the public service if re-elected, while accusing the Coalition of importing a Doge-style agenda from the US.

In an effort to highlight the public service as a key campaign issue, Katy Gallagher said Labor had inherited an agriculture department that was “going broke”, a “bin fire” at home affairs, a social services department with no internal policy unit and “total disasters” in aged care and veterans’ affairs agencies.

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Peter Dutton’s plan to move to Sydney instead of Canberra if elected ‘arrogant’, Labor says

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Opposition leader confirms he would move into Kirribilli House if elected PM – a statement Anthony Albanese says shows ‘a fair bit of hubris’

Labor frontbencher Katy Gallagher has accused Peter Dutton of “arrogantly measuring the curtains at Kirribilli House” and disrespecting the national capital.

Peter Dutton has confirmed he and his family would move into Sydney’s Kirribilli House – a harbourside mansion overlooking the Opera House – rather than the Lodge in Canberra if elected on 3 May.

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Peter Dutton coy on what public servant jobs he will slash if he wins election

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Public service minister Katy Gallagher says opposition leader’s words are ‘reckless’ and would bring back ‘expensive consultants’ and robodebt

Peter Dutton has yet to reveal any detail about his plan to slash public servant jobs in Canberra under a government he leads, as Labor warns his plan will cut crucial government services and risks another robodebt.

In a rare press conference at Parliament House on Thursday, the opposition leader provided little information on his plans to get the “economy back on track” through slashing government jobs and other “wasteful spending”.

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Gallagher warns of robodebt repeat if public service is cut, but denies ‘scare-mongering’

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Finance, women’s and public services minister says Coalition’s promised cuts means ‘failures of systems’

Katy Gallagher has denied running a scare campaign against the Liberals on the possibility the public service would be gutted if the opposition was elected next year, while warning she has “no doubts” the slash-and-burn would lead to another robodebt-style saga.

Several Coalition frontbenchers have ramped up their attacks on federal bureaucracy in recent months, accusing the Albanese government of mismanaging the budget by hiring more than 30,000 people to undertake key service delivery jobs, including in Centrelink and the NDIS.

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Jim Chalmers to confirm first back-to-back federal budget surpluses in more than 15 years

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Treasurer cites lower government spending as the key driver behind the $15.8bn surplus, which is $6bn better than May’s forecast

Jim Chalmers will on Monday reveal a $15.8bn budget surplus in an economic update, more than $6bn higher than predicted at May’s federal budget.

The treasurer says the better-than-forecast budget position has come “entirely” from lower government spending, a detail the treasurer highlights as Labor comes under scrutiny from the opposition and the Reserve Bank over concerns that public expenditure is helping to drive inflation.

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Older Australians pressured into paying unfair robotax debts will not be compensated, government says

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Finance minister Katy Gallagher says people who felt intimidated into paying back ATO debts so old they are impossible to verify will not get their money back

Older Australians who felt pressured into paying decades-old debts as part of the troubled “robotax” campaign have hit out at a government decision to deny refunds after describing the tax grab as coercive.

The federal government has disclosed it intends to amend laws that will allow the Australian Taxation Office to keep debts put on hold before 2017 on ice indefinitely, rather than extract them from future tax refunds, as was planned.

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Government plan to fix ‘robotax fiasco’ doesn’t go far enough, critics say

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Compensation needed for those who have already paid debts incurred before 2017, independent MP says

A federal government plan to unwind a “callous” tax campaign designed to extract historical debts does not go far enough and should include compensation for those who were unfairly pressured into making payments, critics of the scheme say.

The ATO program dubbed “robotax” was designed to raise as much as $15.2bn by pursuing an assortment of debts – many of which were inadvertently accrued decades ago and had been hidden from taxpayers.

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Only 30 of 500 family violence workers promised by Labor have been delivered, minister says

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Katy Gallagher says more aid for women escaping violence could come in form of increased rent assistance as sector struggles to recruit workers

Just 30 of the 500 frontline domestic violence workers promised by the Albanese government have been delivered so far, the minister for women, Katy Gallagher, says.

Gallagher, who is also the finance minister, revealed the difficulty recruiting workers in a pre-budget interview with ABC’s Insiders, suggesting that further help for women escaping violence could come in the form of increased rent assistance.

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Finance department hires consultant to advise on hiring consultants in move compared to ABC’s Utopia

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Exclusive: Department’s $32,000 contract, which comes after PwC tax leak scandal, slammed as ‘laughable scenario’

The finance department has entered into a $32,000 contract with an external consultant to provide advice on how it should engage other external consultants who also provide advice to government, in a move that has been slammed as a “laughable scenario”.

The contract has been compared to an episode of the ABC satire Utopia and as an example of the public service’s reliance on external expertise, even as the federal government tries to save money and do more work in-house.

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Liberal MPs break ranks to call for inquiry into Brittany Higgins’ leaked text messages

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Andrew Bragg and Bridget Archer make call after Network Ten asks AFP to investigate alleged leaking of evidence in Bruce Lehrmann trial

Liberals Andrew Bragg and Bridget Archer have broken ranks to call for an inquiry into how Brittany Higgins’ text messages were leaked, with Bragg labelling debate in the Senate where the Coalition is pursuing Katy Gallagher “very ugly”.

The pair made the call after the finance minister denied misleading the Senate about her knowledge of Higgins’ allegation before it aired and Network Ten asked the Australian federal police to investigate how Higgins’ texts became public.

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Katy Gallagher denies misleading parliament as she blasts ‘giddy’ reaction to Brittany Higgins texts

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Finance minister tells Senate she has ‘always acted ethically and with basic human decency on all matters to do with Ms Higgins’

Katy Gallagher has denied misleading parliament over her knowledge of Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation, hitting back at the Coalition over their “giddy” reaction to leaked text messages.

The minister for finance and women made a personal explanation to the Senate on Tuesday, after Peter Dutton claimed Labor had used the complaint for “political purposes” and “conspired” to maximise the damage to the Morrison government.

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Coalition’s wounded feelings over Brittany Higgins will sink debate to new lows

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The opposition is out for vengeance over what it sees as ‘collusion’ and ‘weaponisation’ but Labor will no doubt push back

What an edifying spectacle parliament is going to be this week.

The Coalition’s two-year old wound caused by accusations it mishandled Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation has been reopened, and they’re out for vengeance.

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Michaelia Cash accuses Labor of ‘weaponising’ Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation

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Shadow attorney general says Katy Gallagher has questions to answer about her knowledge of the claim before it became public

The shadow attorney general, Michaelia Cash, has accused Labor of “weaponising” Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation, insisting finance minister Katy Gallagher still has questions to answer about her knowledge of the claim before it was aired publicly.

Cash’s comments on Sunday came after Gallagher sought to explain her claim that she did not mislead parliament about the allegation. The continued attack on Gallagher is likely to dominate Coalition questioning in parliament when it resumes this week.

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Katy Gallagher denies misleading parliament over knowledge of Brittany Higgins rape allegation

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Finance minister says she was in contact with David Sharaz but did not know the full allegations or decide ‘to weaponise’ them

The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, has insisted she did not mislead parliament over her knowledge of Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation.

On Saturday she said that while she had been in contact with Higgins’ partner, David Sharaz, and was aware of some details of the story before it broke, she had not known the full allegations nor had she “made a decision to weaponise it”.

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PM denies Katy Gallagher misled parliament over Brittany Higgins case after text messages released

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Coalition presses finance minister over her comment to Senate estimates that ‘no one had any knowledge’ before rape allegation was made public

Anthony Albanese has denied that the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, misled the Senate by insisting “no one had any knowledge” before Brittany Higgins made her rape allegation in February 2021.

The opposition is continuing to press Gallagher for an explanation of her evidence to Senate estimates, which has come under question due to the release of text messages between Higgins and her partner, David Sharaz, suggesting contact with Gallagher four days before the story broke.

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Katy Gallagher ‘unchanged’ on stage-three tax cuts, won’t commit to raising jobseeker

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Leaving welfare payments at current rate ‘unconscionable and grossly irresponsible’, says anti-poverty body

The Albanese government remains committed to the $250bn stage-three tax cuts but cannot say whether it will lift the rate of the unemployment payment, despite its own expert committee finding it was now “a barrier to paid work”.

Speaking to ABC’s Insiders on Sunday the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, said the government was reviewing the findings of the economic inclusion committee and the women’s economic equality taskforce, but could not commit to accepting any of the recommendations.

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Majority of Australians on jobseeker and parenting payments live in poverty, study finds

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Report on 3 million people living below the breadline shows welfare payments are ‘totally inadequate’ and action is needed in May budget, Acoss says

The majority of people on the jobseeker and parenting payments are living in poverty while about a third of single parents are also below the breadline, according to a new study.

A report from the University of New South Wales and the Australian Council of Social Service, to be released on Wednesday, provides further insight into the demographics of 3 million people, including 761,000 children, previously identified as living in poverty in the 2019-20 financial year.

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Australia’s welfare system puts disadvantaged at risk, inquiry told

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Mutual obligation system subjects some participants to ‘punitive conditions’, commonwealth ombudsman says

Australia’s mutual obligation system for welfare risks “subjecting disadvantaged participants to unreasonably onerous and punitive conditions”, the commonwealth ombudsman has warned.

The ombudsman made the submission to a Senate inquiry, which has already recommended a major overhaul of the controversial ParentsNext program, and revealed that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants were fined at almost double their rate of participation.

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Labor says public sector board review will end ‘jobs for mates culture’

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Being on a government board should be about what you know, not who you know, minister Katy Gallagher says

The finance and public service minister, Katy Gallagher, says a review of public sector board appointments will end the “jobs for mates culture”.

The federal government is launching a review of appointments to ensure they are based on merit rather than politics.

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Federal government launches ‘world-leading’ bid to end violence against women and children within a generation

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National plan calls for improved crisis housing and assisting men to develop ‘healthy masculinities’

The federal government is setting an ambitious goal to end violence against women and children within one generation, with the release of a new national plan on family violence calling for better crisis housing and assisting men to develop “healthy masculinities”.

The new plan calls for reforms to how media, schools, justice systems, tech companies, the health sector and perpetrators themselves act, with the new National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children giving dozens of suggestions to improve violence prevention and response.

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