Treasurer Jim Chalmers has described the national budget as “serious in some cases” and blamed the previous government for the challenges facing the nation.
Chalmers said he would speak with my details about budget issues in a ministerial statement to parliament and said the new government’s waste audit was continuing.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Credits: Alex Ellinghausen
The national GDP figure rose 0.8 percent in March and 3.3 percent a year through March, but Chalmers said those figures were lower than had been assumed in budget documents.
“The situation we have inherited is serious, in some cases terrible, and we can only meet these economic challenges if we work together, state, federal, local governments, companies, employers, employees, everyone working together, then we can make some progress. “Chalmers said.
“This progress, these challenges will not be addressed overnight, but it is important that we work closely together to address them. The Cabinet will work today to begin this hard work.”
Chalmers said he would outline the problems caused by the previous government when he speaks in parliament.
“I would like to outline in some detail the issues I inherited when I made a ministerial statement in parliament,” Chalmers said.
“There are rising interest rates and productivity issues in the budget that others have written in this room, there are many measures that the government did not talk about before the election.
“We look forward to detailing them as we ensure that the budget presented in October is a true reflection of the economic challenges we have inherited.”