Treasurer Jim Chalmers claims back-to-back surpluses don’t come at cost of household budgets
Treasurer Jim Chalmers claims the Government’s second consecutive surplus has not come at the expense of cost-of-living relief for households, despite criticism that the money should not be being banked.
The Treasurer and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher unveiled the final budget outcome for 2023/24 on Monday, which showed the surplus for the year was $6.4 billion higher than previously though, coming in at $15.8 billion.
Lower than anticipated government spending accounted for twice as much of the boost than changes in revenue.
But asked how he justified the state of the Budget to households struggling to pay their own bills, Dr Chalmers said it was not an either-or proposition.
“One of the reasons we are proud of the consecutive surpluses that we’ve delivered for the first time in almost two decades is we haven’t done that or cost of living relief. We’ve done that and cost of living relief,” he said.
The Budget is still tipped to return to deficit in the current financial year, but Dr Chalmers said that was smaller than what was forecast when Labor came to office in 2022.
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