Jim Chalmers

It's possible to acknowledge that and also recognise that we've come a long way in the last few years.

I mean, we've actually seen the biggest nominal improvement in the budget in the history of the country.

in the last few years, $233 billion stronger.

Debt is down $176 billion.

We found $114 billion worth of savings.

I could give you a whole bunch of different ways that shows that the budget is in substantially better nick than in the 2022 pre-election outlook.

And I'm acknowledging that there's more work to do.

I mean, you referenced the mid-year update in December.

And that had another $20 billion in savings.

The underlying cash position in every year improved.

And so even in that mid-year update, which was a relatively self-contained one, relatively modest one, given a lot of the action was in the budget in March last year, even in that mid-year update, we improved the budget position.

And so we're chipping away.

I think we are making good progress.

We can acknowledge that progress at the same time as we acknowledge we've got more work to do.

Well, I don't like second-guessing the decisions taken a while ago when it comes to the NDIS.

Our highest priority, obviously, is providing a decent level of care for people who need and deserve it, and that's the highest priority, but we've got to make it more sustainable.

I work really closely with Mark Butler and Jenny McAllister, my colleagues, who are

I think doing a terrific job when it comes to making sure that we can afford the NDIS, that it can continue to deliver in a sustainable way for the people who rely on it.

Mark Butler gave, I think, a terrific speech about this in about the third quarter of last year, which showed where the government was heading.

He's done a lot of work with the states and territories, as has the PM and to some extent myself.