00:02Treasurer Erica Berth says this budget is a blueprint for fiscal sustainability that's
00:07designed to reduce borrowing costs and grow the economy.
00:11A total of $10.8 billion will be spent in the upcoming financial year, delivering a
00:17net operating deficit of almost $600 million, with a surplus of $193 million forecast the
00:25following year.
00:26Net debt is expected to peak at almost $9.5 billion in 2028-29.
00:33Servicing that debt will cost taxpayers $638 million the following year.
00:39It is a conservative budget because it does rein in expenditure, but it's also ambitious
00:47because we have no doubt about the task that's ahead of us.
00:52To rein in spending, a total of 1,700 jobs are set to go over the next four years, mostly
00:58through natural attrition and voluntary redundancies.
01:01Those cuts are expected to save a total of almost $1.5 billion by 2029-30.
01:08I have no doubt about the difficulty of the task, the toughness of the task, but it is a necessary
01:16task, especially as we remind ourselves that there are always the contingencies that nobody
01:24could think of.
01:25There are no new taxes, and one of the only sweeteners in this budget is a one-year extension
01:30of free public transport.
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