FEDERAL BUDGET TO REVEAL WAY FORWARD FOR AUSTRALIA’S ECONOMY

It is officially 34 days until the Federal Budget! This means we only have 34 days to wait for the road map and steps to reform and kickstart the economy out of a recession to be revealed.

Economists had predicted negative growth between 5 and 7 per cent for the June quarter and in the end the figure came in at the very top end of those predictions at a 7 per cent fall in Gross Domestic Product from the March quarter.

However, as much as this news isn’t ideal, it’s a lower figure than expected by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg back at the start of the COVID crisis when forecasts for June GDP could fall by 20 per cent.

Even though Australia is doing much better than many other advanced economies, we are in need of major reform with the new budget to drive productivity, to overhaul the tax system overhaul and industrial relations system, increased support in the mental health sector enabling more Australians to remain in the workforce, review of the childcare system to boost female workforce participation and red tape needs to be slashed to allow business to prosper.

This is a brief summary of the article ’33 days to ‘think big’ and come up with some answers’ by Lanai Scar | The West Australian | Thursday 3^rd September 2020.