Topics: Budget 2023

E&OE

DAVID LIPSON: Well in the studio now Angus Taylor, the Shadow Treasurer. Thanks very much for your time. You heard that Chris Richardson reckons that this will increase the likelihood of interest rate rises, but that's not what Treasury thinks. They say it won't add to inflation. Who's right?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, I think there is very real risk of adding to inflation with this budget. This is a budget that doesn't deal with the pressures that Australians are facing. It's a band aid on a bullet wound. It seeks to deal with the symptoms of the problem, not the source of the inflationary cost pressures that Australian households and businesses are facing and as a result, it's very hard to see hardworking Australians getting a hit. In fact, we know from this budget, from the numbers in the budget, a typical Australian family with three kids will be $25,000 a year worse off, and I'm sure there's lots of listeners out there now, David, who are feeling worse off than a year ago and sadly in this budget, the assumptions and what's in the budget proved to be correct. We're going to see a continuation of that. So, this is not the budget we needed. It unfairly uses with one hand whilst taking with the other, divides Australians between those groups who will get direct benefits and the many others who will pay with higher inflation and higher taxes.

DAVID LIPSON: So that's what always happens with budgets though, isn't there always choices? There's always winners and losers.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Yeah, but inflationary economics is different and it's different because when you throw money at it, you make it worse and what this budget does is add $185 billion of spending since this government got into power across the forwards and it adds in terms of new initiatives. Two dollars they’re spending for every dollar of revenue. Now that's inflationary, and we don't need more inflation. The one thing that would unite us, all Australians and help all Australians is lower inflation. It's good for absolutely everybody and yet it's the one thing that this government is shying away from because it loves a big spending budget and that's what it's delivered.

DAVID LIPSON: Okay, so you say the government shouldn't be throwing money at this problem. Specifically, which measures will you oppose?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, we've already said we've already opposed $45 billion of spending with $18 billion of interest costs attached to it. But in addition, in this budget, we see the laborers employing another 10,000 public servants and putting aside those involved in national security and frontline services we don't think that's necessary; we can get a lot of extra costs to be adding. They're adding extra agencies, and that should be done through departments. These are very significant costs. The costs of big government, but they're not the costs that are needed when you're in an inflationary environment. Every Australian is really struggling to make ends meet right now, businesses are struggling to make ends meet. And so, government should be really managing its pennies as well. That's not what this budget does.

DAVID LIPSON: What about the big-ticket items though? I mean, the increased to JobSeeker - $40 a fortnight, the aged care wages increase, the rent assistance increase, can you name any of those, the headline announcements from this budget that you will oppose.

ANGUS TAYLOR: There are others that we’re deeply skeptical about there's an extra $8.6 billion…

DAVID LIPSON: You're not opposing any of those?

ANGUS TAYLOR: $45 billion that I talked about. It's a big number, David, but I’ll give you another big number.

DAVID LIPSON: I just want to be clear on these key measures.

ANGUS TAYLOR: I'm not going to go through measure by measure tonight because we've only just seen them, but what I am going to say is

DAVID LIPSON: It sounds a bit like an endorsement of those measures.

ANGUS TAYLOR: David, I've only seen the budget in the last couple of hours, same as you, and so we'll work through them methodically as we do. That's the right thing to do. But there are big spending items here which we have opposed and will oppose. I mean, there's an extra $8.6 billion of foreign aid in this budget, now is now the right time to be talking about an extra $8.6 billion in foreign aid?

DAVID LIPSON: Well, there is an argument about, you know, soft diplomacy and the Pacific. The importance of keeping people onside.

ANGUS TAYLOR: No, this is separate from the Pacific. It's very important. We accept the extra spending on the Pacific, but this is not about that. It's an extra $8.6 billion beyond that. So, there's some very significant spending items that we're deeply skeptical about. We'll work our way through them. But the most important point here is for $185 billion of spending, $2 of new spending initiatives for every revenue initiative. This is an inflationary budget. Australians are going to pay a high price for it. There’s additional taxes in here, they're going to hit people, and it will make life harder for mortgage holders, for tradies, apprentices, self-funded retirees and regional Australia as well, that does badly out of the budget. So sadly, this is not a budget for all Australians. It's not a budget that's going to help hardworking Australians get ahead.

DAVID LIPSON: I know you don't want to go through measure by measure but the tripling of the bulk billing incentive for GP’s, what's your initial impression of that?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, again, it's part of a big spending budget. So, we're going to have to go through each of these initiatives very carefully and make sure we're getting a cost benefit. There is no point dealing with the symptoms of a cost-of-living crisis without dealing with the source. I mean, if you're actually creating additional inflationary pressures, that swamp any benefit you're giving and certainly add to the costs and taxes of the vast majority of Australians, then, frankly, it's a false economy. And that's the fear with this budget because it is inflationary. I mean, look, governments would love to help out every group, but the truth is that's bad government because it drives up inflation, drives up interest rates and makes everyone worse off.

DAVID LIPSON: Just very briefly if there are any further interest rates rises by the Reserve Bank, will you blame Labor for this?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, I think the last interest rate increase was a wakeup call. It wasn't expected by the so-called experts. It certainly wasn't expected by the markets, but it sent a very strong signal that we need an anti-inflationary and inflation fighting government, otherwise, the Reserve Bank will have to hold interest rates higher than they otherwise would and all Australians will pay for that. And sadly, that is the reality of this budget. As I said, a family with a mortgage, three kids, $25,000 worse off. They'll be out there now. They’ll be feeling worse off many of them I'm sure as they listen to this, David. That's not what we want for Australia. We think we can do better.

DAVID LIPSON: Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor. We await the budget reply from Peter Dutton, the Opposition Leader, thanks for your time this evening.

ENDS