The Turnbull Government is ignoring important advice from the International Monetary Fund overnight that budgets and economies should be inclusive.
Not only have the Liberals made a mess of the Budget over almost four years in Government, but they’re taking the country in the completely wrong direction when it comes to inclusive growth.
The IMF warned in its Fiscal Monitor overnight that:
“Fiscal policy should promote inclusion.” (p. x)
“Fiscal policy has an important role to play to ensure that the benefits of growth are shared more widely within populations.” (p. 21)
More specifically, in general support of Labor’s sensible reforms to negative gearing and capital gains that:
(p. 22)“In some advanced countries, income tax progressivity could be further enhanced by reducing regressive tax exemptions… (and) there is scope to make further use and improve the design of property and wealth taxes in many countries.”
Instead of following the IMF’s good advice, Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison and Mathias Cormann continue to favour the top end of town at the expense of Australians on low and middle incomes.
The Liberals are asking the most vulnerable in our community to carry the can while they give a $50 billion tax cut to big businesses and the banks, and a tax cut of more than $16,000 to millionaires.
No wonder the deficit for this year has tripled, net debt for this year has blown out by $100 billion, gross debt will soon crash through the half-a-trillion dollar mark and our prized AAA credit rating is in jeopardy.
Like the IMF, Labor believes that Budget repair must be fair and inclusive, which is why we’ve pitched up detailed alternative savings.
If the Liberals want to fix the mess they’ve made of the Budget, they should begin by scrapping their $50 billion big business tax cut; their tax cut for millionaires; their harsh family payment cuts from Tony Abbott’s horror 2014 Budget and pick up our sensible proposals for negative gearing and capital gains tax reforms; and further crackdowns on multinational tax avoidance.
