Alex Hawke expects the Budget will be a 'Cook the Books' Budget rather than a 'Kitchen Table' Budget
Friday, 4 May 2012
The Federal Member for Mitchell, Alex Hawke MP, said he expected next Tuesday’s Budget will produce an artificial surplus and will do nothing to help Mitchell families and businesses.
“This will be a ‘cook the books’ budget rather than a ‘kitchen table’ budget”, said Alex Hawke.
“The Budget will be all about Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan’s future rather than the futures of local families and business who are about to be hit with the world’s biggest carbon tax”.
“The Government has been borrowing $100 million every day and we are now paying the price for Wayne Swan’s waste and mismanagement.
“I expect the Government will claim to deliver a nominal surplus, but this is only because the Government is shuffling billions off the balance sheet. The Government has even shuffled the multi-billion NBN off its balance sheet.
“Labor has cooked the books and artificially boosted the budget position by $10 billion. The real starting point for next week’s budget is not a $1.5 billion surplus but an $8.5 billion deficit.
“Families don’t pretend the credit card bill or the car lease is not in the family Budget, but somehow the Gillard government can pretend billions of dollars in wasteful spending is not occurring and not in the Budget.
“I am sure we will also see more broken promises. Julia Gillard promised “there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead” and she promised to protect the private health insurance rebate. She broke her word to the people of Mitchell just like she broke her word to Kevin Rudd.
Alex Hawke said the Budget will be the first ‘carbon tax budget’ that will be delivered on the eve of major electricity and gas price increases and price increases to private health insurance due to changes to the private health insurance rebate.
“Double digit electricity prices will skyrocket from 1 July due to the world’s biggest carbon tax and this will flow on to price increases on all of the necessities of life.
“The price of food, transportation, clothing, eating out, dry cleaning, council rates and every item in household budgets will go up and up. The only items that will have no carbon tax will be imports as the carbon tax acts as a reverse tariff.
“The Government’s broken promise on the private health insurance rebate will also see the cost of private health insurance increase by up to $1,000 a year. It will also increase pressure on the cost of premiums and increase waiting lists at public hospitals as people quit or downgrade their private health insurance.
“The real impact of this year’s budget on Mitchell households and business will be felt after 1 July when the world’s biggest carbon tax commences,” concluded Alex Hawke.