Government Fell $91 Billion Short of Last Intergenerational Report

24 June 2021

Every Australian is $8,000 worse off because Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have fallen $91 billion short of their own Government’s economic targets, even before the pandemic.

JIM CHALMERS MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR RANKIN

GOVERNMENT FELL $91 BILLION SHORT OF LAST INTERGENERATIONAL REPORT

Every Australian is $8,000 worse off because Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have fallen $91 billion short of their own Government’s economic targets, even before the pandemic.

Comparing forecasts in the 2015 Intergenerational Report with the 2014-15 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook the economy was $91 billion smaller pre-pandemic in December 2019 than forecast, with $200 billion in cumulative economic activity lost.

Having so spectacularly overpromised and underdelivered on their last Intergenerational Report, how can Australians trust them to live up to the one which will be released on Monday?

Australia’s recovery would be stronger and more secure if the economy was in better shape going into this crisis, and if the Morrison Government wasn’t stuffing-up vaccinations and quarantine on the road out.

For the second time in just over a decade Australia risks overperforming in a crisis and underperforming in the aftermath.

This underperformance equates to an average loss of $8,036 for every Australian.

Australian workers are yet again paying the price of the Morrison Government’s deficit of vision and deception of delivery.

After eight long years, Australians know the rhetoric never matches the reality.

The Morrison Government’s Budget delivered generational debt without a generational dividend.

Australians can’t afford for this Intergenerational Report to be yet another missed opportunity to address the challenges of the future.

Given the foundations of this recovery have been built thanks to the sacrifices of Australians, they need and deserve a recovery that works for everyone.

This Intergenerational Report must offer the long-term thinking required to ensure our economy and society are stronger after COVID than before.

Without a comprehensive vision for economic reform and economic growth, living standards and incomes won’t perform any better over the next 40 years than they have in the last five to ten.

THURSDAY, 24 JUNE 2021