Ross Greenwood grills Treasurer Scott Morrison on MYEFO
Treasurer Scott Morrison admits a positive outlook for the country shown in his Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) isn’t necessarily reflected in the homes of everyday Australians.
The outlook shows the nation will get back to the surplus the government has promised for five separate forecasting periods during the budget.
It also shows an ongoing push to get more people working and paying tax in a bid to help the bottom line of the budget.
But despite shaving $23 billion off Australia’s gross debt Ross Greenwood tells Scott Morrison the general public isn’t seeing the benefits.
Ross, “One thing I’ve observed and that is while the budget’s improving the position of Australia is improving for many households, things have got tougher. Their wages aren’t growing as quickly as they previously have, house prices have begun to moderate, retailers are struggling in many parts of the country, so there’s almost an inverse relationship between the health of the country and the health of your household economically.”
“I don’t think that’s an unreasonable commentary Ross.
As for the government’s expenditure, the Treasurer is confident he has it “under control”.
“This is the lowest growth in expenditure of any government in the last 50 years.”
The Treasurer says that the higher educations reforms have come at a $500 million cost to the budget.
“It was our preference to have the other reform changes we put in place which had some longer-term structural benefit, but once again the Labor party refused to support that.
It was expected the surplus would come sooner than 2020-2021, but Mr Morrison says the delay is due to one key reason.
“In the first budget, the Labor party blocked all the saving measures we were trying to put in place to try and bring it back to surplus.
“They can’t complain about the fact that it’s taking longer when they were the ones standing in the way of actually helping us get there.”
“At the end of the day, the jobs growth has been phenomenal. We’ve had, this year, the strongest year of jobs growth in 40 years.
“We’re now no longer borrowing any money.”
Click PLAY below for the full interview with Treasurer Scott Morrison