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.

Transcript

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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