Treasurer Josh Frydenberg reveals $7b boost to Budget bottom line as leaders gear up for election
A $7 billion improved Budget bottom line — the best result in more than a decade — will aid the Morrison Government in a pre-Christmas spending blitz from today.
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A $7 billion improvement to the Budget bottom line — the best in more than a decade — will aid the Morrison Government in a pre-Christmas spending blitz from today.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will reveal that a projected $14.4 billion deficit in the next financial year will be halved, thanks to a growing economy.
PM ANNOUNCES NEXT GOVERNOR GENERAL
BILL SHORTEN AMBUSHED ON STAGE
The announcement comes as the government pledges a $552 million boost to the age-care sector, helping the elderly stay in their homes and easing the burden on their wallets.
The good economic news came as Opposition Leader Bill Shorten yesterday promised a “fair go” in his speech to the ALP national conference in Adelaide — and Prime Minister Scott Morrison named Australia’s next governor-general, ex-general David Hurley.
Unveiling a promise to spend $6.6 billion on affordable housing, Mr Shorten also pledged to boost super by getting tough on dodgy bosses.
Revealing the smallest deficit since 2006-07, the Morrison Government will use the mid-year economic update to sell its credentials, seizing on the creation of more than 300,000 jobs in the past year and the lowest proportion of people of working age on welfare in 25 years.
The half-a-billion dollar boost to aged care includes the release of 10,000 high-level home-care packages within weeks, with an extra 1750 to be established in Victoria alone.
The injection of cash will also ease the cost of living for 70,000 older Australians by reducing the daily maximum fees payable by up to $400 a year and almost $21 million for regional aged-care providers.
It comes as Mr Morrison yesterday announced retired army general David Hurley will succeed Sir Peter Cosgrove as governor-general in June next year.
“A strong economy means we can deliver tax relief for individuals as well as small and family businesses,” Mr Frydenberg told the Herald Sun.
“It also means we can deliver the essential services like health care, disability support, aged care and schools which Australians rely on.”
Economists believe the surplus forecast for 2019/20 could be as high as $11 billion, thanks to bigger-than-expected tax revenues.
Deloitte Access Economics expects the government will rake in an extra $9.2 billion in revenue in 2018/19 than it forecast in the May Budget, leading to an underlying cash deficit of $4.9 billion for 2018/19, followed by a surplus of $4.2 billion the following year. The government in May forecast a $14.5 billion deficit for 2018/19, followed by a $2.2 billion surplus in 2019/20.
Mr Morrison’s announcement of Sir Peter’s replacement as Governor-General came as Bill Shorten was speaking to the ALP National Conference in Adelaide.
In a speech that was more of an election pitch than an address to the party faithful, the Opposition Leader pledged that Labor would restore Australians trust in Government after the turmoil of the last decade.
He said that at the next election Labor’s would not just be fighting the Coalition, One Nation or the Greens.
“Our deeper opponents are distrust, disengagement, scepticism and cynicism — our Labor mission is not just to win-back government, it is to rebuild trust in our very democracy, to restore meaning to the fair go,” he said.
To that end, he said that if elected, Labor plans to go after employers who fail to pay their workers’ superannuation.
“The retirement savings of Australian workers are a workplace right. They deserve the same strong protections as any other workplace right and bosses who rip-off their staff and steal their super should receive the same punishments and penalties as those who violate any other workplace right,” Mr Shorten said.
The pledge on superannuation was one of three election promises unveiled during Mr Shorten speech yesterday.
The other new measures was a $6.6 billion pledge to build 250,000 homes which see low income and key workers such as nurses, police, carers and teachers receive subsidised rents.
Mr Shorten also promised that if Labor is elected he will create a Commonwealth Environmental Protection Authority “to preserve our oceans, rivers, coasts and bushland and to protect the native species that call Australia home.”