The Albanese government last week gifted Premiers and Chief Ministers more than $25.5bn in extra GST payments and increased health funding in exchange for doubling the annual increase in state and territory funding for the NDIS from 2028.
Hidden expenditure and revenue measures in Jim Chalmers’ mid-year budget update includes almost $4.7bn in spending over four years on government policies and programs authorised since the May 9 budget but not publicly disclosed.
The “decisions taken but not yet announced and not for publication” budget line item is used by governments to withhold details they don’t yet wish to make public and sensitive programs linked with defence and national security. The Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook released on Wednesday includes billions in payments on new undisclosed measures rubber-stamped since the May budget, with spending building over four years. Treasury says spending on undisclosed programs in 2025-26 will be $1.66bn before rising to $1.8bn the following year.
and a different article:
The figures presented in this year’s mid-year economic and fiscal outlook point to ongoing lavish government spending. Before Covid, government spending was less than $500bn, which was 24.5 per cent of gross domestic product. This financial year, government spending will be about $686bn or 25.7 per cent of GDP. In the next two financial years, government spending is expected to rise even more, to 26 per cent and 26.1 per cent of GDP, respectively. What is absolutely clear is that this government has no stomach for cutting government spending. Indeed even reducing the rate of growth of spending in key areas has proven difficult as interest groups lobby for more funds to be directed at their preferred areas. Watch this space in respect of school funding as the Australian Education Union seeks to increase federal government spending even more on the basis of the dubious Schooling Resource Standard.
The budget surplus that will likely be achieved this financial year – a balance is predicted in the MYEFO – will be almost entirely due to the revenue side of the budget, with a small amount of deferred infrastructure spending also making a contribution. (These projects should never have been in the budget in the first place, so to call their deletion a saving is a bit of a stretch.)
The stark reality is that iron ore, coal and liquefied natural gas remain key pillars of our budget position. Those who seek to crimp the resources sector do so at the peril of achieving the budget outcomes that allow for substantial spending on social policies. Apparently this is not a message that has reached Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen as he tries to convince the world to phase out fossil fuels. Chalmers may pat himself on the back for resisting the temptation to implement even more cost-of-living measures with this statement. But spending is actually higher than in the May budget and the potential impact on inflation of any measures means the risk is not worth taking, notwithstanding some political benefits.
