SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER
MINISTER FOR FINANCE
MINISTER FOR WOMEN
MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE
MINISTER FOR GOVERNMENT SERVICES
SENATOR FOR THE ACT
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RN BREAKFAST
THURSDAY, 27 NOVEMBER 2025
SUBJECTS: October inflation figures, electricity prices, historic environmental reforms, public service funding, WGEA gender pay gap data, CSIRO.
SALLY SARA, HOST: New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that annual inflation rose to 3.8% last month. Meanwhile, electricity prices are now 37% higher than a year ago. Treasurer Jim Chalmers acknowledged the introduction and removal of energy rebates at both the federal and state level had, quote, an impact on electricity prices, while stressing rebates are not a permanent feature of the Budget. Katy Gallagher is the Minister for Women and the Minister for Finance. Minister, welcome back to Radio National Breakfast.
SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE: Thanks for having me on, Sally.
SARA: Is the government considering extending energy bill subsidies beyond the end of the year?
GALLAGHER: Well, I think the Treasurer has made clear that these were, when we commenced them through the Budget process, they were not a permanent feature of our cost-of-living assistance. Obviously, I think all of us have said this a number of times, we look at every Budget, every update to that Budget. We look at what we need to do to provide households with cost-of-living assistance. And that's no different in the work that we're doing right now, whether it be through MYEFO or through the Budget in May. So, we consider a whole range of things, Sally, but our focus is on how do we provide assistance to people that will help them with cost of living, whether it be through energy bill rebates or a whole range of other initiatives and measures we've put in place, including, you know, investments in Medicare and investments in early education and care. All of these things add up to providing households with assistance.
SARA: The latest data shows electricity prices are contributing to higher inflation. So, if you don't extend the electricity bill subsidies, will you be adding to inflation?
GALLAGHER: Well, I mean, we've always been mindful of the role that our assistance can play when we’ve been working and working hand in hand with the Reserve Bank around trying to get inflation back down. And, you know, when we came to government, it was about, I think, 6.1% and rising, and it's now much lower than that. I mean, obviously we want inflation to be as low as it can be within the band. And, you know, some of those results we saw yesterday show that inflation was flat in that in the month of October. But it is higher than we would like, and you know, we'll make decisions based on all of the range of economic data that's feeding into our considerations right now.
SARA: Are you worried that the Reserve Bank's cutting cycle is now over?
GALLAGHER: Well, that's a matter for the Reserve Bank. You know, they have cut interest rates three times this year. They take all of, just as we take data into consideration, they take a range of information into their considerations. But we don't pre-empt or try to, you know, announce or -- they're independent, Sally, as you know, we don't make decisions on behalf of the Reserve Bank. That's a matter for them.
SARA. So, for householders, what would your message be to them about the state of inflation and the government's thinking on providing some sorts of assistance or not?
GALLAGHER: Well, what I would say is that we will continue the work we started in 2022, which is, you know, when inflation was much higher than it is now, we took decisions around providing cost of living relief. We get that households are under pressure and that's why we consider all of these things in the decisions we take. But inflation is much lower than it was when we came to government. You know, unemployment is relatively low. We're getting the Budget in better shape. There’s a whole lot of things that are moving in the right direction. And we'll continue the approach that we've taken in previous Budgets.
SARA: Is the government going to cut a deal today with the Greens to pass your environmental law reforms in the Senate?
GALLAGHER: Well, as you know, Murray Watt has been working incredibly hard over the last, well, since May, really, to try and land these important reforms. We've made a lot of progress this week, including overnight and, you know, the government will have more to say about that later today. You know, our approach has been to get these, this legislation done. It's taken five years since Samuel. It's been stalled for a range of reasons. But I think everybody, business, the environment groups, even the parliament acknowledges that we need to get these laws updated to protect our environment and ensure that projects can get the green light, if they should, based on the law, in the quickest possible way.
SARA: Is the Coalition out of the picture now as a negotiating partner on this issue?
GALLAGHER: Well, I'm not negotiating the bills, Murray is doing that. And I know that he has been meeting regularly with the Coalition throughout the week, including, you know, as late as last night. So, I don't want to, I'm not really in a position to explain where that's up to. There have been genuine and ongoing discussions throughout the week with both the Coalition and the Greens.
SARA: Let's have a look at the public service. You've confirmed reports that you’re asking federal departments and agencies to find savings. How many jobs are we looking at here?
GALLAGHER: Well, I think I listened to the Treasurer talking about this on your show yesterday. Our approach here, and I know there has been some, I think some sort of misreporting, not by journalists but by others who seek to make it something that it's not. This is not an exercise in job cuts. This is an exercise in fiscal discipline. We want departments to be constantly thinking about the money they have, the budgets they have now, and how they are using it. And we'd like, you know, some information about that, really. That's what we've asked them to do. Have a look at what you're doing. Do you need to do all those things? If you don't need to do all those things, can you make those resources available for the other pressures that your department has?
SARA: But wages are a very significant cost for the public service. So, are job losses on the table here?
GALLAGHER: Well, I mean, agencies are funded through the Budget for their wages, so that's, you know, they get appropriation, that appropriation is indexed. But there is also exercises in, whether it be an efficiency dividend or the approach we've taken to ask agencies to have a look at what they're doing. I mean, we've had a lot of success in reprioritising money within departments since 2022.
SARA: But to bring you back to the question, Minister. Are there job losses on the table?
GALLAGHER: Well, that is not, that is not our approach. No. And I've said that in the Parliament.
SARA: If departments offer up job losses as their answer to more efficiency, will you accept that?
GALLAGHER: Well, we haven't asked them. I mean, what we've asked them to do is have a look at their budgets and, you know, if we use the 5% figure, have a look at your lowest priorities when it comes to that and tell us what they are and, you know, then we will make decisions about that. But it's not an exercise in job reductions. The public service will move up and down based on programs that are terminating, pieces of work that finish. And that's always been the case. But this is not an exercise in job cuts. We are not going into this saying we want to cut jobs across the public service. What we're saying is we want to make sure that every dollar that you're getting through your budget is being used on those priorities for your department and meeting some of the pressures you might have. We can't keep layering into the public service every time we do something new, that we have to provide more and more money for it. We can't do that. The budget's under pressure and so we need departments to be thinking about how they are using their budget and whether they can reprioritise within it.
SARA: When you're looking to find savings, what's the figure? Is it up to 5% in savings?
GALLAGHER: Well, we have asked them to look at sort of their bottom 5% or their lowest priority 5%. We haven't said in any way that we want 5% savings from any department. We're asking it essentially as fiscal discipline. Have a look at what you're doing. What is that bottom, lowest priority 5%. And think about it. Because departments often come to ERC wanting more money for things and instead of just saying, okay, well, you know, here’s extra money on top of all the other appropriations we have, and sometimes that will be appropriate, there won't be extra room, you know, we'll be convinced that this is money that has to come in and over and above what they already have. But there are examples, and we've had plenty since 2022 where we've been able to, or departments have been able to say, okay, we will stop doing this and we're going to do that with this appropriation and that's the exercise we're undertaking. It's really about discipline, Sally. Nothing more, nothing less.
SARA: The Workplace Gender Equality Agency reports Australia's gender pay gap reduced by just 0.7 percentage points to around 21%. Is that a disappointing result as the Minister for Women?
GALLAGHER: Look, I'm pleased to see it, obviously I'd want it to come down faster, but I'm pleased to see it continue to trend down. We've seen that certainly since 2022. We're seeing it continue to decline. We're seeing some other good results in this report, including men taking a greater proportion of primary carer parental leave. That's up a little bit by about 3 percentage points. So, that, you know, we're seeing progress, Sally. Yes, it's not as fast as I think a lot of women in this country would like, but it is heading in the right direction.
SARA: Minister, last week the CSIRO announced that it may be cutting up to 350 research positions to address rising costs of doing science. Yesterday, the Attorney General, Michelle Rowland, said the Government had decided to, quote, provide additional funding to the agency. Can you tell me how much extra funding and how many jobs will that save?
GALLAGHER. So, we're working very closely with Minister Ayres, myself and the ERC on support for CSIRO. They do have substantial budget pressures. We have been working through that with them in an orderly way and there will be, as the Attorney General outlined that, we've said that there will be extra investment into CSIRO. It will be quite substantial, Sally, and that will be announced through MYEFO. I'm not in a position to announce that this morning.
SARA: Minister, thank you for your time this morning.
GALLAGHER: Thanks so much, Sally.
ENDS
