Next week's budget will see an increase in welfare payments, Treasurer Jim Chalmers reveals, while warning the government needs to be careful about what it can afford.
Mr Chalmers says the budget will not take a "slash and burn" approach to spending but would also be "inflation-fighting"Next week's budget will see an increase in welfare payments, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has revealed.
Mr Chalmers did not indicate which of these the government would pursue in the budget, but said the committee's work was "important, well-regarded well-informed". It has also extended the eligibility for the Parenting Payment Single to those with a youngest child aged 13 instead of 8, covering an additional 75,000 single parents.
Senator Gallagher has also promised some spending cuts, including $1 billion saved by reducing the use of consultants in the public service. But she also flagged "unavoidable" spending and said savings were getting "harder to find".Next week's federal budget will once again collect more in tax than expected, raking in an extra $25 billion over the five-year budget forecasting period.
"Be very careful about focusing only on the quantity or the magnitude of spending in the budget. There are investments we can make in the budget which can put downward pressure on inflation." While government spending has increased in each of Mr Chalmers's budgets, debt has reduced owing to hundreds of billions of dollars of unexpected revenue, thanks largely to strong commodity prices and high employment.
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