"Clearly that's a large revenue source that the Government doesn't control. "We estimate that the mining sector's paying about $30 billion of taxes annually to the Commonwealth Government," he said. PwC's Jeremy Thorpe argues the Government has had a "degree of luck" with the corporate sector putting the nation's budget back in the black, with a big contribution from surging iron ore prices. This improved to $4.2 billion in the pre-election 2019-20 Budget, thanks in part to a surge in individual and company tax receipts.
The original 2018-19 Budget forecast a deficit of $14.5 billion. "It doesn't resonate with the GDP numbers, and the fact that the economy's pretty flat, that wages are not likely to go up in the foreseeable future."Īustralia's most recent national accounts, released earlier this month, showed the equal lowest annual economic growth rate in almost two decades - at 1.4 per cent GDP growth was as low as during the global financial crisis.Įconomists Stephen Koukoulas and Gareth Aird discuss the budget and economy on The Business (Rachel Pupazzoni) Sound management and a 'degree of luck'Īt the recent election, the Government campaigned hard on being a good manager of the country's finances, and Treasury's Final Budget Outcome adds some credence to those claims. "It resonates for a while, but it doesn't resonate with too many people struggling with the cost of living," he argued. Mr Hewson said the achievement of a balanced budget will not mean much to Australian families struggling to balance their own budgets. "They're playing a very short-term game, they're playing very much a marketing game," he said. The result has prompted the Treasurer and Finance Minister to reconfirm the forecast return to surplus in the current financial year.īut economists are urging the Government to let go of its surplus obsession and to instead consider the needs of an increasingly struggling economy.įormer Liberal leader, and economist, John Hewson has met the announcement with some cynicism. Relative to the size of Australia's economy it rounds to 0.0 per cent, making it essentially a balanced budget. In a half-a-trillion-dollar budget, that is little more than a rounding error. Despite April's 2019-20 Budget signalling a $4.2 billion deficit for 2018-19 financial year, the Government has announced a $690 million deficit.