Calls to fast-track infrastructure
LABOR has urged the Coalition to speed up major infrastructure projects and give pensioners a boost to stimulate the flagging economy.
The Opposition’s spokeswoman for infrastructure, Catherine King, says the Coalition Government should recalibrate its agenda to quell economic headwinds.
She said the Coalition had made a “pretty weird” claim that $13 billion would be spent on infrastructure when $6 billion was listed in the federal Budget.
“There’s a bit of smoke and mirrors happening here,” Ms King told ABC’s Insiders yesterday.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has indicated infrastructure is one of the government’s main priorities after getting a $158 billion income tax cut package through parliament last week.
The economy has been in the spotlight after the Reserve Bank cut the official cash rate to a record low of 1 per cent last week.
Central bank governor Philip Lowe has repeatedly urged the Morrison Government to do more to lift the economy, beyond the personal income tax cut legislation that was passed by the parliament this week.
Economic growth slowed to 1.8 per cent annual pace in the March quarter.
The Government is weighing up cutting the deeming rate, which is the assumed return for pensioners’ assets.
Pensioners can earn up to $172 a fortnight before their government payments are reduced, with investments included in the income test.
Assistant Treasurer Zed Seselja said the Government was listening to concerns from pensioner groups, telling Sky News that “we’re very, very sympathetic to the cause”.
Labor’s social services spokeswoman Linda Burney said pensioners could be up to $3875 a year better off if the deeming rate was reduced by 1.25 per cent.
“Scott Morrison is on another planet if he thinks pensioners can find secure investments that pay anything like 3.25 per cent,” she said in a statement. “It’s sneaky and unfair to count income that pensioners simply aren’t getting.”
Ms King said the government needed to stimulate the economy beyond the tax cuts.
“It’s time to look at infrastructure and we’re calling on them to do that.”