Door open to pre-election welfare hikes beyond new $12b spend

Wed, 11 Dec 2019

The government is leaving the door open to election year announcements of increases in benefit levels and tax relief for working families over and above the $12 billion of new infrastructure spending announced today. The $12 billion, five-year package of new capital spending leaves the government well within its self-imposed upper limit for net government debt at 25 percent of gross domestic product. That is a five percentage point increase on the Budget responsibility rules that have operated since the government was formed in 2017. T...

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