Jim Chalmers

And so it's really kind of like two budgets in one.

is the near-term stuff, inflation, petrol prices, war in the Middle East, fuel security.

There's all of that stuff, which in ordinary times would be big enough to be a budget on its own.

I think you acknowledge that in your question.

There's a lot here.

It's broad, ambitious.

But instead of doing that, instead of longer-term stuff, we're doing that in addition to longer-term stuff, and that's what I'm proudest of.

One more and then we're done.

I think a couple of really important answers to those questions.

First of all, spending on the NDIS continues to grow.

I'm a huge supporter of the NDIS and

My view is we kind of had to save it from itself.

You know, the risk was that the growth in spending on the NDIS was going to become so extreme that some future government, I think of a different political stripe to ours, would be tempted to knock it off or to do things which aren't in the interests of Australians with a disability.

And so, you know, we carry that responsibility heavily.

We created the NDIS.

We believe in it.

We're trying to save it.

And what that means is spending is still growing, but growing more slowly.

trying to make sure that we can afford to fund the services that people need and deserve.

So I understand whenever you're making changes like that, there's a level of anxiety.