Senior Labor ministers have claimed Tuesday’s budget contains $3bn of “secret cuts”.
The government has explained this is mostly due to measures in “decisions taken but not announced” that are not proceeding.
In December, the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook (Myefo) update contained $16bn of decisions taken but not announced and other “mystery” spending, which Labor claimed was a secret election war chest.
An explanation can be found on page 49 of budget paper 2 of Tuesday’s budget. It shows that the government updated that a further $1.4bn in decisions taken but not announced, or confidential spending, would take place in 2022-23.
But in the remaining three years from 2023-24 to 2025-26, there appears to be a $3bn reduction in this line item.
In at least four interviews on Wednesday, Anthony Albanese raised the spectre of “$3bn of hidden cuts”.
The shadow finance minister, Katy Gallagher, claimed these were “secret cuts … coming after the election if you re-elect Scott Morrison”.
REVEALED: $3 billion in secret cuts are coming after the election if you re-elect Scott Morrison.
— Katy Gallagher (@SenKatyG) March 30, 2022
And they won’t tell you what they are going to cut either.#auspol #Budget22 pic.twitter.com/Zjxt8xwskl
The shadow infrastructure minister, Catherine King, asked “what roads, rail, services and jobs” the Coalition plans to cut:
$3b of cuts hiding in decisions taken but not announced.
— Catherine King MP (@CatherineKingMP) March 29, 2022
They promise one thing before the election, but deliver nothing but cuts after.
What roads, rail, services and jobs does Scott Morrison plan to cut? pic.twitter.com/egqC29rYdX
On Wednesday the finance minister, Simon Birmingham, responded that Labor “can’t even read the budget papers correctly” or was being “completely misleading”.
“What they’re peddling around is a reduction in a budget line of decisions taken but not yet announced,” he told Sky News.
“That’s because those were things that we budgeted for back in the [Myefo] that were decisions which we have subsequently announced.”
Birmingham gave the example of the $1.3bn women’s safety package, which had money set aside in Myefo that was then allocated in the budget.
“So we’ve provisioned for it in the responsible way – to do it now shifts from that budget line to the other one.”
In question time, Labor asked about the “$3bn cuts”. Scott Morrison explained “when that number goes into the negative, other numbers go into the positive”.
“It comes out of that column and it goes into another column.”
The use of “cuts” is misleading, and implies that the $3bn represents previously announced programs that will be axed or slashed – when, in fact, they relate to policies that were provisioned for in Myefo, never announced and not proceeding.
Budget paper no 2 contains details of the programs that are proceeding, identified by the words “partial funding for this measure has already been provided for by the government”.
These include:
The $3.7bn skills package.
$1bn investment in university research commercialisation.
$468.3m for aged care.
$423.7m for fighting cancer.
$131.5m for the Medicare Benefits Schedule.
$228.5m for school education support.
$230.7m for strengthening primary health care.
Infrastructure investment.
Support for forestry and fishing, and the Great Barrier Reef.
Australian export and trade support.
The mental health package.
Countering violent extremism and transnational crime.
Advancing science, technology, engineering and maths.
Energy and emissions reduction.
Support for the space industry.
Community development grants.
This is a list of programs that were all partly paid for out of the $16bn war chest in Myefo .
The government will not be releasing the breakdown of the $3bn, but Guardian Australia understands they relate to elements of the national skills agreement, women’s safety and infrastructure investments.
It is a new category that should perhaps be labelled decisions taken, not announced, then reversed. But it’s hardly a cut.
