Mathias Cormann sticks to prediction of Australia reaching surplus in 2020-21
FINANCE Minister Mathias Cormann has promised $65 billion worth of business tax cuts in Tuesday’s federal Budget will flow through to higher wages for workers.
NSW
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FINANCE Minister Mathias Cormann has promised $65 billion worth of business tax cuts in Tuesday’s federal Budget will flow through to higher wages for workers.
Senator Cormann, who has spent the week deeply entrenched at Treasury headquarters finalising the Budget papers, said lifting employee salaries was a priority, given wage growth has stagnated in the past decade.
“We want Australians today and into the future to be able to get a good job, have job security, have a career here in Australia and, yes, get pay rises over time,” he told The Saturday Telegraph in an interview.
“That’s why we are so committed to pass our business tax cuts in full.
“Because the future job opportunities, job security and wage increases for families around Australia wanting to get ahead depends on the future success and profitability of the businesses that pay them and pay their wages.”
There will be a focus in the Budget on looking after the country’s ageing population, with significant funding dedicated to “home-care packages”, allowing older Australians to stay in their home for longer before they move into an aged-care facility.
The Turnbull government will portray this as a clear point of difference with Labor, because Bill Shorten’s dividend imputation reform will hurt self-funded retirees and pensioners.
A big spend on road and rail projects will also be a key plank of spending, with the infrastructure budget set to top $75 billion over the decade.
The Budget is also expected to paint a brighter picture of the nation’s economic outlook, with Mr Cormann indicating Australia is still on track to reach a surplus in 2020-21.
“Our economic growth outlook is now stronger, employment growth is much stronger and our budget position is now on a believable path back to surplus,” he said.
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“We want Australian families to have the best possible opportunity to get ahead.
“Our plan is working. We are making progress heading in the right direction.
“This is not the time to go back to Labor’s discredited ways of the past, which gave us a weakening economy, rising unemployment and a rapidly deteriorating budget position in the first place.”
Mr Cormann said when Labor and Mr Shorten lost government in 2013, they left behind a “weakening economy, rising unemployment and a rapidly deteriorating budget position”.
“Bill Shorten has not learnt the lessons of Labor’s past failure. He is back running on an anti-business, anti-growth, anti-jobs and anti-aspiration agenda which would make everybody poorer,” he said.
“Higher taxes on business means less investment, means fewer jobs and lower wages over time. That is because as fewer jobs are created, unemployment goes up and the lower demand for workers would lead to lower wages.”