24 April 2014
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Commonwealth spending will be put to the knife in the federal budget on 13 May as Treasure Joe Hockey outlines a radical overhaul that could slash government outlays by $65 billion a year within a decade.
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Source: The Australian
In a speech entitled The Case for Change, Hockey has begun to unveil the findings and recommendations of the Government’s much-anticipated Commission of Audit, which the Coalition is using to frame its 13 May budget.
The commission handed its final report to the Government late last month and the Treasurer will release it publicly on Thursday, 1 May.
Warning of the huge costs of social programs, the Treasurer said “nothing is free” and more income tests and co-payments would have to be applied to government payments to prevent the burden being passed to the next generation.
But he declared last night that the new “age of responsibility” would have to include corporate Australia as well, signalling cuts to $10bn in annual industry assistance. Mr Hockey set out an -ambitious turnaround in federal finances based on a Commission of Audit report he will release on, using a speech in Sydney to reveal some of the confidential findings.
Hockey says the Commission of Audit has made 86 recommendations, some of which can be “actioned in the short term. Others will require further consideration, and some will be rejected outright”.
The report has focused on the 15 largest government programs and found they are also the nation’s fastest growing.
The age pension tops the list with a cost this financial year of $39.5 billion.
Higher education also features on the “large and fast growing” list of progams.
See
Treasurer Joe Hockey warns of tougher means testing ahead of Commission of Audit’s release (ABC)
Joe Hockey’s budget warning: we all have to contribute (The Australian)
