JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN

SENATOR KATY GALLAGHER
SHADOW MINISTER FOR FINANCE
SHADOW MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE
SENATOR FOR THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

The defining feature of the 2018-19 Final Budget Outcome is a $4.6 billion underspend in the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
 
These new numbers show the Morrison Government is propping up their Budget by denying Australians with a disability the care they need, deserve and were promised.
 
Even with a $4.6 billion underspend on the NDIS, higher iron ore prices and a lower dollar boosting profits and the bottom line, the Budget is still in deficit.
 
This is the sixth consecutive budget deficit from a Liberal Government which promised surpluses in the first year and every year after that.
 
Today’s result confirms that net debt has more than doubled under the Liberals from $175 billion in 2013 to $374 billion now.
 
The Government shouldn’t be patting themselves on the back about today’s numbers.
 
Australia has the slowest growth in a decade, stagnant wages, productivity in decline, record household debt, high underemployment, and declining living standards.
 
Right when the Australian economy needs action to get the economy moving again, the Liberals have a political strategy but not an economic policy.
 
Short-changing Australians with a disability is not an economic policy.
 
It is time Josh Frydenberg and Scott Morrison brought forward a budget update to update their forecasts and properly outline an economic plan that supports the floundering economy and better safeguards it from global risks.

THURSDAY, 19 SEPTEMBER 2019