Treasurer Jim Chalmers celebrated a second successive budget surplus and dismissed the idea of a deliberate leak as a Labor insider suggests he conspired against his boss.
Dr Chalmers boasted on Monday how the final budget result will reveal an even bigger surplus for 2023-24 than predicted in the May budget.
“The difference is explained entirely by lower spending, not by higher income,” he told ABC Radio Nacional.
“In fact, we raised less revenue than we anticipated at budget time, but spending was substantially reduced.”
The Treasurer’s announcement comes after Cameron Milner, who was former Labor leader Bill Shorten’s chief of staff, suggested last week that Dr Chalmers had deliberately scheduled a negatively targeted review to politically embarrass Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Nine Newspapers welcomed the drop, revealing that the Treasury was reviewing existing policies on negative gearing and whether a cap, and the 50 per cent discount on capital gains tax, could be introduced.
The news was published while Dr. Chalmers was on a flight to China, leaving Albanese with some uncomfortable questions.
“Of all the days this could have been removed, it was published as an exclusive the morning before the Treasurer boarded a plane for 10 hours,” Milner said in a News Corp op-ed.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers (pictured with wife Laura) boasts about achieving a second successive budget surplus as a Labor insider reveals how he conspired against his boss.
“That meant the prime minister would be left alone for a whole day to answer questions.”
The Treasurer’s announcement comes after Cameron Milner (pictured), who was chief of staff to former Labor leader Bill Shorten, suggested last week that Dr Chalmers had deliberately scheduled a negative-oriented review to politically embarrass the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
But Dr Chalmers suggested on Monday that he did not want the Treasury’s modeling process to be leaked to the media.
“It’s really not worth worrying too much about that,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“You know, I would have liked to have spent the last week talking about very encouraging inflation numbers, very productive engagement with your Chinese counterparts and the fact that we are running two consecutive surpluses for the first time in almost two decades.”
Milner, a former Labor secretary of state in Queensland, said the whole affair showed Albanese was not aware of the details.
“It is infamous that Albanese never figures out the details, while his Treasurer never figures out the details,” he said.
“The only time Chalmers seems a little upset is when he has to take the beating for his hapless leader.”
Dr Chalmers, however, declined to explain explicitly whether he had sought advice from the Treasury on negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount, despite several attempts by ABC Radio National host Steve Cannane.
‘Sometimes advice comes spontaneously. Sometimes I look for it,’ he said.
“On this occasion, when there is a contentious issue in the public sphere and we have a serious housing shortage, of course the treasurers receive advice from their department on these types of issues.”
Pressed again, Chalmers hinted that he had sought Treasury advice on negative gearing, even though the Labor Party under Albanese abandoned a policy to remove tax breaks for future investor owners after Shorten lost the 2016 and 2019 elections.
The news was published while Dr Chalmers was on a flight to China, leaving Mr Albanese with some uncomfortable questions.
“I have made it clear on several occasions for the best part of a week that I received this advice because it was a contentious issue, it was in the public domain and it was a big part of the parliamentary debate as well,” the Treasurer said.
Like Milner, Dr Chalmers also belongs to the Labor Right faction in Queensland.
The Treasurer revealed on Monday that the budget surplus for 2023-24 would be $15.8 billion, up from $9.3 billion forecast in the May budget.
The surpluses for 2022-23 and 2023-24 are the first consecutive surpluses since 2007 and the first for a federal Labor government since 1989.
But falling iron ore prices are expected to push Australia into budget deficits between 2024 and 2025 as the government receives less business tax revenue.
“We always take a deliberately conservative approach to raw material prices, and that is justified,” Dr Chalmers said.
‘In fact, in recent months the prices of our raw materials have been quite low.
“Sometimes, in fact, they have been below the assumptions that we have included in the Budget.”
Last year’s Treasury intergenerational report forecast budget deficits until 2063.
