New details have emerged outlining how Australia’s national debt will grow faster and larger, following the federal budget reveal.
Experts have found a smaller deficit was achievable in the 2022-23 federal budget, as outlined in an .
In the paper, ATA Chief Economist Dr John Humphreys revealed new avenues of wasteful spending in the Federal Government’s budget resulted in a deficit $24 billion higher than necessary.
“The frustrating detail about this budget is there was a golden opportunity to simply allow rebounding economic growth to push the deficit down naturally, without the need for any hard decisions,” Dr Humphreys said.
In the budget reveal, the Federal Government announced a $78 billion deficit and a combined deficit of $225 billion across the coming four years.
“If the government had simply sat on their hands for the last 12 months and introduced no new policies, the budget deficit would have passively shrunk to $54 billion, and $180 billion across the next four years,” Dr Humphreys said.
“This is already significantly better than the budget deficits announced on budget day and the result would be better still if the government cut back on other wasteful spending.”
Dr Humphreys said, of hundreds of new policy measures announced in the budget, none would contribute to long-term savings.
“Good fiscal policy would demand the government cut back on wasteful spending to reduce deficits but weak political leaders are generally scared to cut government spending at all for fear of the inevitable complaints,” he said.
“The government missed the opportunity to shrink the deficit to manageable levels.”
Since 2011, the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance has advocated for everyday Australians against everything from irresponsible to downright corrupt government moves.
The ATA is a grassroots advocacy group fighting for smaller government, more transparency and less bureaucracy.
