Treasurer Jim Chalmers to temper great surplus expectations in pre-budget speech

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The federal treasurer is playing down expectations of major new spending ahead of the May budget, saying spending will be tighter and revenue upgrades smaller.

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00:00 The Treasurer, as we get ever closer to the May Budget, is seeking to limit expectations

00:08 of major new funding in the Budget. This is because revenue upgrades will likely be much

00:16 less than what was anticipated and recorded in the December MIEFO, the Mid-Year Economic

00:24 and Fiscal Outlook. Treasurer Jim Chalmers is attributing that mostly to two things,

00:30 one of them being a fall in iron ore prices and the other being a softening of the labour

00:37 market, suggesting an end to tax receipts being significantly higher than forecast,

00:44 something that's often referred to as 'rivers of gold' when we're talking about different

00:51 resources and the incomes that are eventuated as a result of that. On iron ore, he'll reference

00:58 a near 10% fall in the cost over the past week, and that's largely due to limited demand

01:05 from China for iron ore, for steel production. On the side of the jobs market, more job losses

01:16 and fewer jobs being created is likely to see reduced receipts from income tax as well

01:23 as a heavier reliance on welfare payments. So they're the insights that we're getting

01:28 so far ahead of this speech this afternoon from the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers.

01:34 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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