Federal Budget 2018: Peter Costello says Turnbull government has failed to control debt
ON the eve of Scott Morrison’s third budget, former treasurer Peter Costello says most of us will be dead before Australia’s national debt is paid off.
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FORMER treasurer Peter Costello says most of us will be dead before Australia’s national debt is paid off.
On the eve of Scott Morrison’s third budget, Mr Costello told ABC’s 7.30 the Turnbull government had not done enough to control debt.
“We’ve now had ten years of deficit. Cumulatively, that means to cover that we’ve had to borrow about $370 billion. We went from having no net debt to borrowing about $370 billion.
“That money doesn’t go away. It’s going to be there, we’re going to be paying interest on it until somebody pays it back.”
When asked by host Leigh Sales if the Turnbull government should pay it back with the revenue windfall they’ve just had, Mr Costello said the issue would take decades to fix.
“Well, we won’t pay it back in one year,” he said. “You won’t pay it back until you get into surplus.
“The debt as a proportion of the GDP is about 19 per cent, it’s about the same as when I became Treasurer
“It took us ten surplus budgets to pay it off last time. You’d be doing well to pay if off in ten surplus budgets this time. You’re looking at a decade at least, maybe beyond.
“I think the probabilities are, if I may so Leigh, I think the probabilities are we’ll never get back to where we were. You and I will die before that happens.”
Mr Costello told the ABC he feared for Australia in the event of a global downturn, saying the nation was “more fragile, more exposed” than it was when the global financial crisis hit in 2008.
Australians can expect tax cuts, help with power bills, and congestion-busting road and rail projects when Treasurer Scott Morrison delivers tomorrow’s budget.
“(It’s) a budget that will ensure hardworking Australians can keep more of the money they earn,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told cabinet in Canberra today.
“A budget that will enable us to have the resources to keep Australians safe, and a budget that will ensure the government lives within its means.” Mr Turnbull today announced a $400 million project to duplicate the remaining single-track section of Sydney’s Port Botany rail line as part of a $75 billion road and rail infrastructure package.
He also flagged help for people dealing with high energy bills. The promise of personal income tax cuts has been hinted at for months in what could be the final budget before the next federal election.
Mr Morrison says the cuts won’t be “mammoth” but says they will be affordable. “We’re for lower taxes, because we’re for a stronger economy,” Mr Morrison told cabinet.
It’s expected part of the tax relief will come through increasing the low-income tax offset, while the budget promises tax cuts for higher income brackets by 2024.
Opposition finance spokesman Jim Chalmers says Labor wants to see lower- and middle-income earners get the most benefit from income tax cuts. He says the coalition is using a temporary income spike to fund ongoing spending.
“We will go the election with a more responsible approach than the government, because we’ve taken difficult positions at great political risk to ourselves,” Mr Chalmers told reporters.
But Greens leader Richard Di Natale says he won’t vote for income tax cuts. “We won’t support a tax cut to corporations and we won’t support income tax cuts that make inequality worse,” he said.
Originally published as Federal Budget 2018: Peter Costello says Turnbull government has failed to control debt