Today’s federal budget will reveal a $45 billion improvement in the bottom line over this and the next three financial years, as Treasurer Jim Chalmers promises “spending restraint” at a time of high and rising inflation. Source: The Guardian.
The improvement in the forecast bottom line comes as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended expected reforms to negative gearing and capital gains tax, casting the budget’s focus on intergenerational fairness as a salve against rising populist anti-establishment politics sweeping the Western world.
While the nation’s finances are expected to remain in the red, Mr Chalmers flagged a combined $44.9 billion in smaller deficits over the four-year forward estimates period, compared to the December update.
The budget will show that policy decisions taken since the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook have contributed to the fiscal improvement, and that the government had not spent the windfall tax gains driven, in part, by soaring commodity prices triggered by the US-Israel war on Iran.
“We’ve delivered a big improvement in the budget bottom line since we were elected and another improvement since the last update in December,” Mr Chalmers said in a statement.
“What’s driving this improvement in the budget are the savings we’ve found and the spending restraint we’ve shown and you’ll see that [in the budget].”
The government has already announced that changes to the NDIS will save the budget an estimated $37 billion over four years.
If achieved, it will be one of the largest savings from a single policy decision this century, according to the e61 Institute.
Other pre-announced policy changes, including trimming investor tax concessions, winding back health insurance rebates for older Australians, and scaling back the electric car discount, will bring the total savings to “well over” $50 billion, predicted e61 economists Lachlan Vass and Jack Buckley.
Mr Albanese said Tuesday would feature “a very wide-ranging budget” with a focus on housing, productivity and fuel security.
Amid accusations of breaking a promise not to touch tax rules for landlords, Mr Albanese said “the dream of home ownership is disappearing for a generation of Australians, and we can’t afford to just sit back and watch that happen”.
FULL STORY
Budget contains $45bn bottom-line improvement over four years as Jim Chalmers promises ‘spending restraint’ (By Patrick Commins and Josh Butler, The Guardian)
