IMF report shows Rudd govt is ruining economy - Hockey
The federal government will post a budget deficit of about $30 billion as 300,000 workers lose their jobs during Labor’s first term, shadow treasurer Joe Hockey says.
The IMF has slashed its forecast for Australian economic growth, warning policy action in response to the global recession will have a limited impact.
Releasing its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF forecast Australian growth would contract by 1.4 per cent in 2009, before growing by 0.6 per cent in 2010.
Mr Hockey said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd would never deliver a surplus budget.
“The clear evidence today from the IMF is that Kevin Rudd’s cash splashes have spectacularly failed, they have failed to prevent Australia from going into recession and they have failed to protect jobs,” Mr Hockey told reporters in Sydney on Thursday.
He said the report did not support the government’s “massive” and “wasteful” expenditure.
“Kevin Rudd will never deliver a surplus budget,” he said.
“Kevin Rudd has not delivered a surplus budget and he never will.
He said the coalition supported infrastructure spending and investment in job creation, but the government could not continue borrowing $1.5 billion each week from overseas to fund the budget deficit.
The IMF expects the Australian jobless rate to be 7.8 per cent in 2010, compared to its current level of 5.7 per cent.
“It is quite clear that out of the IMF report there are going to be thousands of Australians who are going to lose their jobs if they have not lost them already,” Mr Hockey said.
“Under the Rudd government 300,000 people are going to lose their jobs in its first term.”
He said Australia had entered the global recession with money set aside for nation building exercises.
“I welcome the admission by (Treasurer) Wayne Swan this morning that Australia can be thankful for the surpluses created by the Howard coalition government,” Mr Hockey said.
“We fully expect that the budget deficit this year will be in the vicinity of $30 billion and next year it could even be as high as $40 to 45 billion.
“If it is at those levels, it is near the highest level as a percentage of GDP of a government in living memory and the impact on Australians is ferocious.”
He said he had warned the government early last year that it was taking Australia down a path towards recession.
AAP
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Bill April 23, 2009
I like Joe. He seems like a passionate person who genuinely wants to help as opposed to some others in the political spotlight, but just like all the others so far, there is a lot of finger pointing in the media and not enough of what his plan is to right the ship. Let’s start talking about being pro-active and doing what we can to make things better from where we are at now.