Balance between helping struggling Australians and keeping the pressure off rising prices was the key theme when Labor’s money man sat down with 9News chief political editor Charles Croucher to discuss what’s expected to be Australia’s first budget in the black for 15 years.
Chalmers said inflation, though predicted to almost halve over the next 18 months, was still driving a lot of the government’s budget policy and defended the decision to raise JobSeeker and other payments by $40 a fortnight, less than recommended in a recent report.
“There’s always people who say don’t do anything, there will be groups who say that we should be doing more, and I respect all of those opinions right across the spectrum of views,” he told Croucher on Tuesday night.
“What we’ve tried to do here is strike a good balance.”
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Chalmers said the rising prices confronting Australians weren’t because government payments were too generous or wages were growing too quick but due to the war in Ukraine and supply issues in the economy.
“With this package we’ve targeted it, we’ve made it responsible over a period of time, and that’s because our cost of living package is designed to address cost of living pressures, not add to them,” he said.
Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor wasn’t giving his opposite number any credit for the surplus the Coalition failed to achieve throughout nine years, calling it a “big-spending” budget in a year when a “drover’s dog” could have balanced the books.
“It gives with one hand, takes with the other divides Australians into those who get benefits from the government and the vast majority who are going to pay for those benefits,” Taylor told Croucher.
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