JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN

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

FALLING REAL WAGES, A TRILLION DOLLARS IN DEBT AND THE RISK OF A SECOND WASTED DECADE

 
Nothing in this Budget makes up for a decade of attacks on wages, job security and Medicare.
 
Its defining features are pay that won’t keep up with prices and almost nothing to show for a trillion dollars in debt.
 
It’s a ploy for an election, not a plan for a better future.
 
Australians need a pay rise not a patch job that leaves them $26 a week worse off.
 
An economy that works for everyone starts with a government that actually delivers what it announces, and we know this one never does.
 
If this Budget wasn’t ruined by rorts and weighed down by waste and mismanagement, there’d be more room to support families and pensioners and invest in the future.
 
Scott Morrison is only pretending to care about the costs of living because he has to call an election in the next fortnight, and he’s running out of time.
 
While inflation has risen to 4.25 per cent, real wages are going backwards 1.5 per cent this year - more than the 0.25 per cent the last Budget anticipated.
 
This will leave the average Australian worker $1,355 worse off.
 
Even these billions of dollars sprayed around on the eve of an election won’t go near topping-up the $3,600 typical Australian families are already out of pocket because of skyrocketing costs of living.
 
Having failed to hit 52 of their 55 wage growth targets, Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg want you to believe this time they really mean it.
 
The second highest taxing government in three decades will collect an extra $5,275 for every Australian, compared to the last Labor Government.
 
There’s a cash splash before the election and at least $3 billion in secret cuts after – the Government must come clean about the cuts buried in the Budget papers.
 
If the Government is defeated in May, its parting gift to Australians will be an increase in petrol prices in September, pay not keeping up with prices, a trillion dollars in debt, and rising interest rates
 
They’re asking Australians for another three years but haven’t made any meaningful steps to addressing the aged care crisis and haven’t funded a National Anti-Corruption Commission.
 
The Treasurer who talks about delivering what he promised is the same Treasurer who made ‘Back in Black’ mugs before the last election and is now admitting to deficits as far as the eye can see.
 
The same Treasurer who has abandoned millions of dollars he promised for carparks in his own electorate, let the Emergency Response Fund sit idle, paid tens of billions to companies that didn’t need it, and mismanaged the books of the most wasteful government since Federation.  
 
This Prime Minister will do and say anything before an election - even his own Ministers don’t trust him to deliver what he promises.
 
After all the challenges and sacrifices made during the pandemic, floods and bushfires, Australians need and deserve a better Budget for a better future, but they didn’t get one from Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg.
 
An Albanese Labor Government has real policies to ease the costs of living, strengthen Medicare, deliver cleaner and cheaper energy, a better NBN, cheaper access to child care, fee-free TAFE to tackle the skills crisis, and a Future Made in Australia.
 

TUESDAY, 29 MARCH 2022