PALMER’S $1 TRILLION BUDGET HIT
POTENTIAL political kingmaker Clive Palmer would blow a $1 trillion hole in the federal budget in a decade from just one controversial policy, exclusive modelling has revealed.
Financial analysis, conducted for the Bulletin, shows a massive budget hit by 2030 from the United Australia Party’s pitch to boost the weekly age pension by $150.
Pensioners would receive an extra $7800 a year while singles would have $1143 a fortnight and couples $1871 every two weeks.
But funding the age pension would cost taxpayers an extra $302 billion over 11 years, according to modelling by Australian National University researchers.
The total age pension cost would hit $1017.2 billion – or $1 trillion – by 2030, the modelling reveals.
The UAP leader has emerged as a potential kingmaker in a swath of marginal seats after a Newspoll showed he was polling 8 per cent on average across four key electorates.
The embattled Queensland billionaire, 65, is in talks about a preference deal with the Liberal Party that could all but guarantee him a Senate seat.