The economy is expected to grow and there are other positive signs ahead but the mid-year economic update has revealed the government will need to keep inflation in check.
Unless the government is willing to increase taxes elsewhere to pay for tax cuts there will be longer-term costs for the budget and the economy. And younger Australians will wear these costs.
The opposition will attempt to strengthen its economic credentials by announcing on Friday a package of savings to help pay for its policies and improve the budget bottom line.
A budget speech that fails to discuss basic measures of how the economy going is revealing in itself. Joe Hockey is the first treasurer since at least 1981 not to mention GDP.
The impact of 2015 budget measures delivered by the government pale into insignificance when compared with the external factors hurting the budget bottom line.
There continues to be a great debate around Australia’s fiscal position. Yet, budget deficits are, in fact, a natural outcome of the business cycle. In a policy brief, co-authored by myself and colleagues…
The debate about long-term public finance and the role of government is one that is most definitely needed. However, there are two aspects to this debate that are often conflated. First, there is the issue…
The Napthine government kicked up the political tempo in Victoria yesterday, courtesy of the latest state budget. Delivered confidently by the new Treasurer, Michael O’Brien, the budget has let loose a…
Today’s announcement by the government that it has a $12 billion “black hole” had the status of a confession. It needn’t have. All talk of “black holes”, “revenue shortfalls” and “structural deficits…
Structural changes in the economy are likely to leave Governments across Australia facing budget deficits of around 4% of GDP for at least the next decade, according to research released today. The Grattan…
Each year the budget is like an annual health check on a patient with many complexities. In a black coat, not a white one, the august Treasurer reports the nation’s temperature, provides much-needed tonics…
It’s an old joke, but hard to resist around Budget time. That is, that economic forecasting was invented to make astrology look respectable. Over the past few days we’ve heard a lot about how notoriously…
The former Governor of the Reserve Bank, Bernie Fraser, hit the nail on the head the other night when he found it absurd that the Reserve Bank could be reducing interest rates one day, while a week later…
Kevin Davis, Australian Centre for Financial Studies
Treasurer Swan’s commitment to bring the government budget into surplus in 2012-13 may be a political imperative, but is not good economics. The focus for prudential fiscal management should instead be…
The Victorian government is set to hand down its budget this week. Premier Ted Baillieu is committed to returning Victoria back into the black, after it spent the first six months of this year in a $341…
The Federal Government is continuing its pre-budget surplus sell, with Prime Minister Julia Gillard directly linking its plans to return the budget to surplus to lower interest rates. Gillard will use…
The Federal Government’s quest to return the budget to surplus raises many questions and not just about what immediate rationale there is on economic grounds for this strategy. It also raises deeper questions…
The Federal Government is still aiming to deliver a slimmed down surplus next financial year, but has downgraded economic growth forecasts amid a slowing world economy and news that Europe may already…