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
 

Today’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook has destroyed the economic credibility of the Morrison Government.  
 
Australians are paying a high price for the Liberals’ incompetence which has delivered weaker economic and wages growth, skyrocketing living costs, higher unemployment and record high household and government debt.
 
After months of insisting that the “fundamentals of the economy are strong” and that “the policy settings are right” the Government has been forced into a humiliating admission that the economy has deteriorated on its watch with significant and overdue downgrades to key economic forecasts.
 
Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have failed the basic test of coming up with a comprehensive plan to get the economy moving again.
 
MYEFO shows that for the current financial year, economic growth is down, wages growth is down, consumption growth and business investment are down and unemployment is up.
 
Cumulative surpluses have almost halved across the forward estimates with a projected surplus of only $5 billion this year and $4 billion in 2022-23.
 
The Budget update confirms that net debt has more than doubled under the Liberals to $392 billion, with gross debt crashing through a record $556 billion. The Liberals have abandoned their promise to pay off their own record debt by 2029-30.
   
This Outlook is a missed opportunity to turn the economy around and address our longstanding but increasingly urgent challenges – including weak consumption, stagnant wages, falling productivity and high underemployment.
 
This Liberal-National Government has got the economy wrong at every turn.
 
The Liberals are not doing enough to support the weak economy or prepare Australia for the future, something Labor, the Reserve Bank, the business community, experts and others have been calling for for months.
 
Labor will continue to call on the Morrison Government to put forward a comprehensive plan to support the floundering economy, boost jobs and wages, lift productivity and support struggling families and pensioners.
 
MONDAY, 16 DECEMBER 2019