Labor fails Australian families - Liberal Party

Labor fails Australian families
10/05/11

Australian Liberal Party

This Budget confirms how out of touch Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan are with Australian families. It fails the essential test: to ease the cost of living on Australians who face higher prices every day.

There is nothing in this Budget for Australian families doing it tough. All this Budget delivers is more deficit, more debt and more spin.

The government’s failure to rein in its wasteful and reckless spending will lead to higher inflation and higher interest rates.

This Budget is not worth the paper it is written on. There is a hole in its heart. The absence of the carbon tax means the government’s claim to deliver a surplus in 2012/13 can’t be taken seriously.

The revenue figures for 2012/13 are wrong. The expenditure figures are wrong, as are the forecasts for inflation, economic growth and unemployment.
Not only did Wayne Swan leave the carbon tax out of the Budget, he couldn’t even bring himself to mention it in his speech.

The uncertainty surrounding the Labor-Greens carbon tax should have been dealt with in the Budget, but instead of standing up to the Greens, Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan have failed.

Strong leadership provides certainty. This government is weak, unstable and directionless and lacks the leadership to do what’s right for Australian families and businesses.

Instead of being honest with the Australian people, Labor is trying to deceive them by excluding the carbon tax from this Budget.

This year’s Budget deficit has soared to $49.4 billion and the forecast deficit in 2011/12 has blown out by $9.6 billion to $22.6 billion. With Australia’s terms of trade at their highest level in more than a century, the budget bottom line should be in a much healthier state.

Net government debt has climbed to a record $107 billion in 2011/12 and is forecast to remain above $100 billion across the forward estimates. This amounts to more than $4700 for every Australian.

By 2014/15 the Government will be spending $7.5 billion a year or around $20 million a day on interest payments.

This financial year, the government is borrowing $135 million a day, or almost $1 billion a week to fund its reckless spending spree.

The government has finally followed the Coalition’s call and invested in the important area of mental health.

Again we’ve seen a typical, old fashioned Labor Budget that’s big on taxes and big on spending, but fails to help households battling higher costs of living – petrol, electricity and gas, groceries, health costs and home repayments.

The only certainty out of this budget is further pain, thanks to Wayne Swan’s flood tax and big new mining tax. Struggling Australian families are being made to pay for Labor’s failures.

Labor’s unhealthy addiction to wasteful and reckless spending will increase the costs of living faced by households, small and big business across the country.

The government is launching a $2 billion assault on families by freezing the indexation of key family tax payments and income thresholds for three years. Labor simply doesn’t understand the serious cost of living pressures faced by millions of Australian families.

This is the first budget in eight years that has not provided tax cuts for everyday Australians.

The government is being tough on families because it’s failed to be tough on itself.

Labor has lost control of Australia’s borders. Offshore asylum seeker management has blown out by a record $1.75 billion since last year’s budget. Labor’s incompetent approach to border protection is in disarray.

This is a confused budget from a Treasurer clearly out of his depth. Mr Swan promised to slash spending, but failed. Instead of showing restraint, the Treasurer is reverting to type and reaching for higher taxes and higher spending.

The new arrangements for taxing company cars will slug small business operators, tradesmen and farmers with increased costs at a time when they’re already doing it tough.

Regional Australia has again been short changed by a city centric government that’s cut $500 million in regional funding. There is not a single new cent in this Budget for road or rail projects across Australia.

Responsible economic management is not in Labor’s DNA.

Since coming to power, Labor has employed 24,000 additional public servants. The Government is asking the Australian people to tighten their belts, but it’s refusing to do the same itself.

This Budget poses more questions than answers. Where are the cuts in waste? Where is the relief for families?

Labor is incapable of delivering a surplus budget. It simply cannot manage money and continues to spend beyond its means. Spending decisions taken by this government have increased expenditure by around $19 billion in the past six months alone. Labor has hit Australian families and the economy with new and higher taxes worth more than $6 billion.

Labor is addicted to spending and lacks the courage to make tough decisions.

This is a compromised Budget from a compromised Government. The only thing we can be sure of is more tax, more debt and more deficit. That will make Australia weaker, not stronger.

Australians are looking for stability and certainty from their government, not this weak and directionless approach.

ENDS

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