Savings Targets

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (15:00): My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer confirm that he is planning to impose an additional savings target of .75 per cent on government agencies, and when will that new target come into effect?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:00): I can confirm that what we outlined in the policy costing document released publicly prior to the election will be implemented. There were varying levels of savings for what I might refer to as the health agency and the non-health related agencies, so the number to which the honourable member refers is only one of the numbers in the policy costing document. That is a publicly available document, and the honourable member can apprise herself of the details of that, and that will be one of the guiding influences of the new government's budget.

The details of that will be released, as I indicated earlier, on 4 September. I again repeat to the honourable member information I gave to one of the other honourable members, and that is that what will be made clear is that the savings task that agencies will be confronted with after 4 September will be a combination of the former Labor government's saving tasks, some of which were announced just prior to Christmas in the Mid-Year Budget Review but not yet implemented, and some will be as a result of the new Liberal government's savings task. Any savings task an agency has from the 4 September budget will be as a result of a combination of Labor government decisions and incoming Liberal government decisions.

In relation to the date of operation, because the budget has been delayed, that is a complex question. Clearly, the technical answer is that it relates to the whole of the financial year 2018-19, which starts, obviously, on 1 July, but the budget of course will not finally be passed until some time later this year, potentially October or November of this year.

So the final details of that will not be available, clearly, until the Appropriation Bill and any budget related measures bills have passed the parliament. The technical answer is that it will operate from 1 July, but obviously in relation to the public announcement of decisions, etc., it will not be until 4 September, and there is always the caveat in relation to the final shape of the budget having passed through both houses of parliament, I would imagine some time in October or November.