Federal budget outcomes released for 2024-2025

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The budget deficit for last financial year is lower than originally forecast.  Treasurer Jim Chalmers has just released the final budget outcome for the 2024-25 financial year.

Transcript

00:00The financial budget outcome is basically taking a look at what the predictions were

00:06for the financial year just finished and just checking if those figures are completely accurate

00:10or if they need to be updated.

00:11So there have been a number of updates to those figures.

00:14The biggest one there is the deficit.

00:16It's around $10 billion for last financial year.

00:20The forecasts initially were more up around the $28 billion mark.

00:24So that's quite a substantial drop.

00:26The government is saying the main reason for this is because of more Australians being

00:31in work and therefore paying taxes and earning more.

00:35So if you're earning more then there's more tax being paid and that money of course goes

00:38back into the government's budget.

00:41The suggestion being that the government is potentially relying slightly on bracket creep

00:46to get itself through with this budget.

00:49The Treasurer Jim Chalmers though today insisting that the government is addressing that issue

00:53as well with the tax cuts that it's legislated and promised.

00:58Our fiscal strategy is a combination of finding savings, $100 billion so far, showing restraint,

01:05banking 70% of upward revisions to revenue and making room for our priorities.

01:10When it comes to bracket creep, we've shown an enthusiasm to return bracket creep last year,

01:17next year and the year after.

01:19And there is a political difference there because we believe the best way to return bracket creep

01:24is to try and return bracket creep for all taxpayers and not just for people who are already

01:29doing relatively well.

01:32So Steph, what have the updated figures shown us about actual budget expenses?

01:37Yeah, so when we're talking about expenses, it's the money the government is paying to different

01:41projects and portfolios.

01:43So what has been interesting to note is that spending on education is a lot less than previously

01:50budgeted.

01:51Also housing, the amount spent on housing is much less than had been budgeted, which is

01:56particularly interesting given all we've been hearing about in recent months, basically all

02:01of this year, is that there is housing stress across the country and governments at all levels

02:06are promising to do more to help with that housing stress.

02:10Yet we're seeing the amount of money spent on housing actually being less than what was

02:15budgeted.

02:15The question was asked during the press conference as to why that was the case, not just with

02:20the education being lower, but also the housing.

02:22And the suggestion is that it's because the states and territories haven't been able to

02:27access the money set aside.

02:29Obviously, there's a lot of T's to cross and I's to dot.

02:33And it sounds like not all of that has been done, but it is slightly concerning to see

02:38that when we know that there is such a housing crisis across parts of Australia.

02:44Another interesting point to note as well was the tobacco excise revenue.

02:48So that's money the government is collecting from sales of tobacco.

02:52It's actually gone up a little bit.

02:54The Treasurer saying that is due to strict compliance measures in terms of how the opposition has

03:01responded to today's figures.

03:04Opposition leader Susan Lee spoke before all of these figures were released, but she insists

03:09that the government isn't doing a good enough job.

03:12I gave a speech at the Committee for Economic Development Australia recently, which talked

03:20about the importance of fiscal guardrails and actually having budget rules that restrain

03:27spending, because what we now see from this government is no rules, no guardrails and $50,000

03:34per minute in labour debt.

03:37The most rapidly growing item in the budget is repayment on debt.

03:42And the point I made is, this is unfair to future generations of Australians who right

03:48now cannot realise the dream of home ownership.

03:52And it is totally unfair for them to have to pay back Labor's debt.

03:57Now, since the federal election, the opposition is reviewing a number of its policies.

04:02So in terms of its suggested budget measures and key policy announcements, we are yet to hear

04:08a number of those.

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