Albanese government hopeful of reaching agreement over EPBC reform; first top level fire warning in the state for two years. Follow latest updates

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Cabinet minister Clare O’Neil has defended the government’s move to find savings in departments, following reporting yesterday that the minister for the public service, Katy Gallagher, has instructed all departments to find savings of 5%.

In the Senate, Gallagher said yesterday the reporting was “incorrect” but suggested Labor’s attempts to rein in spending was an example of “fiscal discipline”, and that there would be no reductions to the average headcount in the next budget.

There’s absolutely areas in the public service where we do need to think about making sure that we’re spending taxpayers money wisely.

[There’s a] trillion dollars worth of debt, $50,000 in interest repayments every single minute of every single day because they refuse to make the tough decisions and now you’ve got Christmas job cuts on the table that they’re saying won’t be cuts.