Chalmers’ fake budget repair makes productivity challenge more urgent
The Treasurer’s failure to start genuine fiscal repair means he May budget will have to do even more heavy lifting on economic reform.
Jim Chalmers had warned that Wednesday’s fiscal update would not be a mini-budget addressing Australia’s productivity malaise and that we would have to wait until the full budget next May for policy measures to revive the stalled agenda of the Economic Reform Roundtable in August.
However, he did flag that the 2025 mid-year economic and fiscal outlook would make the “tough decisions” and “hard choices” that budget restraint and responsibility demanded.
