The AFR reports that Treasurer Jim Chalmers will use a speech today to warn that the federal government will need to make some “difficult decisions” with its first Budget on 25 October.
Chalmers will highlight cost increases in five key areas of government spending, including the National Disability Insurance Service, interest payments on government debt, hospitals and aged care. He will argue that this spending is “desirable or unavoidable, or both”.
Chalmers’ is expected to use these cost blowouts as an excuse for scrapping or scaling back the size of the stage-three personal income tax cuts. Labor committed to retaining the tax cuts during the May election campaign:
