Treasurer Jim Chalmers has posted a surplus for the second year in a row, but critics have slammed it as “a surplus built on people’s suffering” amid an ongoing housing and cost of living crisis.
Ahead of the budget delivery on Tuesday afternoon, Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather criticized the $9.3bn surplus as evidence of “how little Labor cares about the housing crisis”.
He said: ‘$9.3 billion could finance the construction of 18,600 public housing units.
‘It would be the biggest year of public housing construction in decades, and would change tens of thousands of lives.
‘In contrast, the Labor Party will report a surplus of $9.3 billion. That’s how little the Labor Party cares about the housing crisis.
Ahead of the budget handover on Tuesday afternoon, Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather criticized the $9.3 billion surplus as evidence of “how little Labor cares about the housing crisis.” “.
Chandler-Mather – a first-term MP who has earned a reputation for annoying Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – is not the only progressive to take issue with the government’s surplus.
Greens senator Nick McKim was scathing of the surplus and the budget as a whole, saying: “This is a surplus built on people’s suffering.”
“Workers must be careful, because disillusionment and disappointment quickly turn to anger.”
‘People have every right to be angry about a budget that allocates $764 billion for defense but doesn’t find a penny to increase the unemployment rate or youth benefits. The government is running up a surplus while young people and retirees take out loans to pay the bills.
Greens leader Adam Bandt described the Budget as one that has “betrayed the hardliners by prioritizing surpluses over helping people”.
Dr Chalmers has celebrated this as an economic victory for the government.
‘Jim Chalmers’ decision to focus on a surplus in a cost of living crisis will hurt people.
‘The government’s $9.3 billion surplus could fund a rent freeze, include mental health in Medicare or give every poor Australian more than $3,000 in cost-of-living support; Instead, a surplus is just a political talking point for Labour’s re-election campaign. .
‘A tenant only receives an extra dollar a day in rental assistance. Expensive items are bad for the country.’
But Dr Chalmers has celebrated it as an economic victory for the government.
“I want Australians to know that despite everything coming our way, we are among the economies best placed to manage these uncertainties and maximize our opportunities,” he said during his budget speech in the House of Representatives on Tuesday. evening.
He said: ‘$9.3 billion could finance the construction of 18,600 public housing units. ‘It would be the biggest year of public housing construction in decades, changing tens of thousands of lives.
Labor has ignored calls from the Greens for a rent freeze and has instead set its sights on lofty construction targets.
‘Last year, our responsible economic management generated the first surplus in 15 years. We now expect another surplus, of $9.3 billion this year.
“These would be the first consecutive surpluses in almost two decades,” he said.
But Dr Chalmers warned that “pressures on the budget intensify after that, rather than diminishing.”
It anticipates a deficit next year, even as gross debt steadily declines. This year it will be 904 billion dollars, compared to “the more than a trillion we inherited.”
Chandler-Mather has been highly critical of the government’s housing policies and has told voters they could be doing more to fix the crisis.
Labor has ignored calls from the Greens to freeze rents and instead set its sights on ambitious construction targets, arguing that the only way to ease pressure on the housing market is to increase supply.
This Budget includes a suite of measures focused on easing the pressures of the housing crisis, including $1 billion to help build community infrastructure in regions facing significant development and a $1.9 billion boost to Commonwealth Rental Assistance.