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

MORE MARKETING, MISMANAGEMENT AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

This Budget is yet another marketing exercise that can’t re-brand the mismanagement and missed opportunities that define eight long years of this Liberal-National Government.

It is a shameless political fix, rather than the genuine reform needed to make Australia’s economy stronger, broader and more sustainable.

Despite spending almost $100 billion and racking up a record $1 trillion in debt, the Morrison Government’s Budget reveals real wages will go backwards.

Beyond the hype and the headlines, Australians on modest incomes will only receive a temporary tax break before the election and be dealt a tax hike after it, while the highest income earners will enjoy a permanent tax cut forever.

After their last Budget centrepiece ‘JobMaker’ created just 1,000 of the 450,000 jobs promised, Australians can’t believe any jobs promised in this Budget.

Morrison and Frydenberg won’t tell Australians when they will be vaccinated, haven’t secured more vaccines, haven’t come clean on the cost and risk of delay, and are failing to deliver fit for purpose quarantine facilities.

Instead of securing Australia’s recovery, the Morrison Government is risking it.

It’s not the headline-seeking announcements in this Budget that matter, it’s the Government delivering on them.

For eight long years, this Government has overseen record low wages growth, chronically high underemployment, and it still doesn’t have a credible plan to create secure jobs.

For eight long years, this Government has presided over an aged-care crisis, an energy crisis, a housing crisis and a skills crisis.

And for eight long years, this Government has overpromised and underdelivered on critical infrastructure and this Budget actually cuts funding by $3.3 billion.

They’re now cynically using their eighth Budget to pretend they care about the issues and Australians they’ve ignored in the last seven.

Even in the face of a damning Royal Commission, the aged care package falls short of the Commissioners’ recommendations.

The Liberals and Nationals have consistently underdelivered, relying on factors beyond their control to bolster the economy and prop-up the budget.

While improvements to both are welcome, they are despite the Morrison Government, not because of the Morrison Government.

The Budget would’ve racked up less debt without Morrison’s slush funds, rorts, dodgy land deals, advertising and JobKeeper payments to already profitable businesses that don’t need it.

That waste is set to continue, with 21 new or topped-up slush funds totalling $4 billion.

Just because the recession could have been worse, doesn’t mean the recovery can’t be better.

After eight long years of job insecurity, weak wages growth, neglect, and waste, this Budget is another missed opportunity to invest in Australians, their jobs and their future.

TUESDAY, 11 MAY 2021

FRIDAY, 5 MARCH 2021