Productivity flop sinks budget

Senator Andrew Bragg
Shadow Minister for Productivity and Deregulation 
Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness
Liberal Senator for New South Wales

STATEMENT

Labor has broken the nation’s finances. The productivity failure now means Australia has its backside out of its pants.

The Parliamentary Budget Office has found that Jim Chalmers has a $60 billion black hole in his budget. 

Labor’s budget reads: “In the long run, underlying productivity is assumed to grow at 1.2 per cent per year”. In reality, Australia’s average labour productivity growth rate is just 0.1% over the past eight years. Since Labor came to power, productivity has fallen by 5%. These are the facts.

Chalmers is padding his budget with fantasy forecasts. A more realistic 0.5% productivity rate — halfway between the historic average and Labor’s guesswork — shows the budget is in far worse shape:

Labor is doing nothing to stop their productivity crisis. Documents released by the Senate show that under Labor:

• Not a single department has a productivity or deregulation unit.
• Not a single draft policy, meeting or paper focusing on productivity has been created.
• Not a single new policy on productivity exists for their second term.

So how will Albanese and Chalmers fill their $60 billion black hole? One thing is guaranteed: New taxes are coming as a result of Labor’s largesse and productivity failure.