Why are Australians so poor?

Posted by Fairfax Media on Monday, April 03, 2019 07:05:17Why are Australians such poor?

While the global economy has been improving, the country is struggling to meet the growing needs of a population of 1.1 billion people.

“Australia’s budget deficit has more than doubled to nearly $200 billion since 2010,” said Peter Dutton, the finance minister.

“We’ve had to slash the size of government and the number of services we provide, cut back on government spending and slash wages.”

Mr Dutton said the Government was committed to reducing its budget deficit by 5 per cent this financial year.

“We want to reduce the size and scope of government by 5.5 per cent next year and by 5-6 per cent in 2020,” he said.

“But there’s an opportunity here for the economy to recover.”

Mr Andrews said he was optimistic the Government would be able to reduce its deficit by at least 3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) this financialyear.

“The government will be able, with a big budget surplus, to pay for the things we’ve got to pay,” he told ABC radio on Saturday.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt we’ll be able do it, I think the question is how do we do it?”

We’ll do it by reducing the size or scope of the government, not by cutting it.

“Mr Anderson said the Budget would not address the budget deficit because it was based on assumptions that were “based on assumptions we have made about the economic future”.”

I’m hopeful that if we’ve been doing a good job, that we will be back in the black this year, and that the next budget will be more balanced,” he added.

The Government is now forecasting a budget surplus of just $12.5 billion, or about $1.8 billion lower than the $30 billion surplus forecast in July.”

That is not good news,” Mr Andrews said.

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