No taxes ahead to rein in budget

AUSSIES will not be slapped with higher taxes or massive austerity measures to repair the budget, which has had hundreds of billions of dollars ripped from it by the COVID crisis, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

But he warned that stimulus measures such as JobKeeper payments would not last forever, fearing businesses’ entrepreneurial spirit will atrophy if they rely on subsidies. A plan to slash green tape to get significant private projects up and running faster was also flagged. It was part of his CEDA State of the Nation speech yesterday in which he announced 15 major projects would be fast-tracked through halving their approval times, including the Inland Rail.

Mr Morrison warned that it is expected to take two years to get the economy back to the level it was pre-COVID, with more than $100 billion of activity lost this year alone.

“That’s why we have a plan to lift growth, not just for the next few months, but the next five years,” he said.

But he said there was a tough job ahead to rein in spending and boost revenue through getting people back into work. “Neither excessive austerity, nor higher taxes are the path that our Government will pursue,” he said.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese questioned the Government’s ability to bring back projects, pointing to the often-delayed Inland Rail. “The number of times I’ve heard a bring-forward of the inland rail line,” he said.

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