Debt continues to rise under this Government and Jim Chalmers will have a lot more to say about that in his opening remarks. They should stump up their costings for full scrutiny, as we have done, for full scrutiny and public disclosure.Now, of course we will respond to changing economic circumstances as necessary, but we are outlining a strategy today and a strategy we would intend to stick to.Further swinging cuts would be a blow to jobs, a blow to growth, and endanger our economic prosperity.
Of course, debt and deficit would be lower if this Government embarked on the sorts of serious policy reforms that Labor has a ready indicated we will adopt: reforming negative gearing, capital gains tax discount, trusts and managing tax affairs. anthony albanese mp leader of the australian labor party member for grayndler. member for mcmahon.
And that's what we've done and I think it's the right balance.Of course, I would prefer and the Treasury would prefer and everybody would prefer that their projections from the Budget have been met. What I’ve just said, that we will take some time... We will take some time to work through but obviously at the outset, it raises questions which we will be asking through those normal processes about the impact of this measure. It doesn't take that many people to run a mine. I would emphasise that our expenditure in both dollar amounts and as a percentage of GNI will continue to grow, and the aid budget will still reach $5.7 billion in 2013-14, Australia's largest aid budget in history. CHRIS BOWEN, SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks for coming everybody. And it’s a $65 billion hit over the decade. It means that they are racking debt up at $3.26 billion dollars a month rather than $3.5 billion a month. As you know, the IMF conducted a public review of Australia's financial system that concluded that Australia should develop a financial stability fund with a financial stability levy as a matter of high priority. Of course, they can do that but it just goes to the warped priorities of this Government that they actually do not believe in proper investment in our universities and in particular they do not believe in opening the door of opportunity that university provides the people from low social economic backgrounds.Jim and I were both very fortunate to be the first in our families to attend universities and it is very important to the Labor Party that that opportunity continues to exist for people.
It's been a wild 24 hours for the Colts, and Kevin Bowen recapped the Chris Ballard press conference that took place on the Colts Complex today. More than one person had pointed out it was absolutely vital to the survival and prosperity of our banks.
There’s very little more I can add other than expressing that view. This is absolutely the worst time to increase personal income tax for those earning between $21,000 and $87,000 and yet it is what this Treasurer and this Government are committed to doing.I will ask Jim to add to these remarks and then we will take your questions.What this Budget update shows is that the Turnbull Government has learnt absolutely nothing from the hundreds of thousands of Australians who have deserted them since the last election and the five or six thousand people in Bennelong who deserted them on Saturday. It doesn't come in to place until 2016, but we'll work constructively with the financial sector as they prepare for this change. I think you are entitled, as members of the fine estate you're members of, to be rather cynical about that approach. I want good and profitable banks in Australia. Real GDP is now forecast to grow by 2.5 per cent this financial year, down from 2.75 per cent at Budget time. So if you’re going to compare our corporate tax rate, by all means, but compare also the fact that we do not have state corporate taxes like other countries have, some other countries have, we have dividend imputation. Well, you know, the fact of the matter is that we had a very significant investment boom with the current corporate tax rate.