Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor has branded Labor’s first budget a vanity project, saying it will leave Australian families $2000 worse off by Christmas.
Spiking interest rates and electricity prices would hurt families and the government had no credible plan to help people with the cost of living, he said.
“This is incredibly disappointing. What was the point of this budget?” Mr Taylor told reporters on Wednesday.
“Why did we have a budget now when we normally have a budget in May? Is this a vanity project for Jim Chalmers? Is this simply about him?”
Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones defended the budget’s timing, saying the government didn’t want to wait another six months to deliver on its commitments.
He said the October budget also saved $22 billion of inefficient and wasteful Liberal spending, which was mostly set out in the coalition’s pre-election 2022/23 budget in March. Federal budgets are usually handed down in May.
Mr Jones also noted the government couldn’t do everything at once in its first budget.
“So we’re trying to balance and direct the target and support those parts of the community that are doing toughest,” he told AAP on Wednesday.
“We know the households that are doing it toughest are the ones with rising childcare bills, trying to manage the cost of childcare, cost of education, maybe dealing with parents in aged care as well.”
But Mr Taylor argued there had been no consideration of struggling Australians, despite Labor pledges to reduce energy prices and increase real wages.
The government has blamed the opposition for deferring energy price hikes until after the May election.
But the shadow treasurer said he wasn’t aware of any impending energy spikes before the poll.
“The government saw the Ukraine war happen before the election and they kept their commitment to a $275 reduction (in power bills),” Mr Taylor said.
The budget also revealed unemployment is expected to rise and real wages to fall.
Treasury has forecast wages to lag inflation by two percentage points in 2022/23.
Retail electricity prices are predicted to increase by 20 per cent in late 2022 and a further 30 per cent in 2023/24.
Retail gas prices are expected to increase by up to 20 per cent in both 2022/23 and 2023/24.
Rents are also expected to pick up “considerably” over the next two years, Treasury said.
Nationals leader David Littleproud criticised Labor’s plan to scrap coalition spending on dams and regional grants and business programs.
“Labor has ripped the guts out of regional and rural Australia,” he said.
“Their terrible policies are creating enormous damage. Labor has broken the promises, broken the hearts and broken the bank balances of regional and rural families.”
By Dominic Giannini and Paul Osborne in Canberra
