Jessica Irvine is all out of “serious” for 2021. She's seriously serious-ed out. But Treasurer Josh Frydenberg unveiled his mid-year budget update last Thursday, and she still has a few things she’d like to say about it | OPINION auseconomy auspolitic...
The bank’s board is scheduled meet next on February 1 to consider whether it’s time to turn off – or at least down – the pace of its
of buying government bonds at a current rate of $4 billion a week to stimulate our economy. Not in the budget, but worth keeping in mind.Yep, same old. There is nary a hint in this budget update of the sort of– like lifting the rate and expanding the base of the GST so we can rely less on personal income taxes – which economists say is really necessary to kickstart growth.
has increased 11.7 per cent on average, fuelled by income support and tax relief. It certainly helps to ease the pain – for some at least – of those real pay cuts I talked about earlier. But it won’t last.12 billion dollars of disaster payments! During the latest lockdowns, $12.9 billion of COVID-19 disaster relief payments went out the door to support workers whose hours were reduced. Another $14.7 billion in support was jointly provided with state governments to support businesses.
As we come to the end of another difficult year, I would conclude that our budget problems are not insurmountable. Challenges remain; but we have risen to challenges in recent times. We will do so again in 2022.The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform.