The forecast for Australia’s economic growth in 2019-20 has been cut by 0.25%, and the projected surplus for this financial year slashed by A$2.1 billion.
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Politics with Michelle Grattan: Mathias Cormann and Jim Chalmers on the mid-year budget update
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The figures indicate a worsening economy, but the government has sought to put a positive spin on the situation, saying the Australian economy is showing resilience.
On one hand, we’re still able to forecast a surplus. On the other, conditions are deteriorating. Treasurer Frydenberg and Finance Minister Cormann deliver the news.
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MYEFO contains a long-overdue admission: that low wage growth is the new normal. It’ll take extraordinary spending restraint to make the surplus forecasts stick.
If all goes well, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg might just deliver his tiny projected surpluses, but it isn’t clear why he should.
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With a budget surplus in sight, it makes no sense to cut funding from Australia’s research capacity.
Neither Treasurer Josh Frydenberg nor Finance Minister Mathias Cormann would commit to banking the proceeds of improved economic circumstances.
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The government is worried about a conference which is a highly managed affair where divisions are being contained and participants have their eyes firmly on the prize of Labor winning power next year.
As happened during the last budget boom, the government will spend it (quite likely on tax cuts) leaving little for when things turn down down the track.
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History suggests the government will spend most of the extra $10 billion per year that the MYEFO will reveal on Monday. The only problem is, those riches won’t last.
The government is proposing to save A$2.2 billion on education over the next four years, which will hit students the hardest.
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The cuts to higher education funding are more about making savings than improving higher education, and would be extremely hard to change in the future.
MYEFO leaves Treasurer Scott Morrison with the difficult task of managing Australia through a period of both sluggish GDP growth and a persistent budget deficit.
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Ahead of the Mid Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, minister for defence industries Christopher Pyne said a lot of jobs were created in 2016 and Australia has the highest growth rate in the G7. Is that true?
The world economy is inextricably linked with the US.
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Ahead of next week's mid-year economic and fiscal outlook, the government has been hit with the sobering news that real GDP shrunk in the September quarter.
Tony Abbott launched the Green Army program, and remains a big fan.
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The possible axing of the Green Army, which aimed to put thousands to work tending conservation projects, leaves many questions unanswered - the biggest being the reason for the sudden retreat.
Government spending, in part, reflects the policy commitments and borrowings of previous governments.
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Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen told journalists that since the last federal election, the government has had spending as a percentage of GDP at GFC levels. Is that right?
More than three in every four Medicare-billed pathology tests are analysed by one of two big corporations: Sonic Healthcare and Primary Health Care.
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Industry consolidation and technological advances have completely reshaped the pathology industry over recent decades. But the way governments pay for pathology services hasn’t kept up.
Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh.
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Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne
