Budget 2022: The numbers every business owner needs to know in Labor’s first budget
Labor says its new budget is focused on ‘economic resilience’ and ‘fiscal restraint’. Here are the key figures and forecasts it’s using as backing.
2022-23 deficit forecast: $36.9 billion
Deficit improvement since March budget forecast: $41.1 billion
Rate at which the economy will grow this financial year: 3.25%
Rate at which the economy will grow next financial year: 1.5%
Unemployment rate prediction: 4.5%
Where inflation will peak this year: 7.75%
Where inflation will sit through the next financial year: 3.5%
When real wages are meant to start growing again: 2024
Debt-to-GDP ratio in 2022-23: 37.3%
Savings identified by the spending audit: $22 billion
Savings to be made by cutting consultant, advertising, travel and legal costs: $3.6 billion
Savings to be made by chasing multinational tax dodgers: $4.7 billion
Cost of cost-of-living relief package: $7.5 billion
How many more paid hours women should be able to work thanks to childcare relief: 1.4 million per week
Number of families eligible for more affordable childcare: 1.2 million
Months of paid leave parents will get access to by 2026: six
Cost of the flood response package: $3 billion
Cost of the free TAFE program: $1 billion
Cost of making students “happy and healthier” and schools “better”: $770 million
Number of new uni places for disadvantaged students over the next two years: 20,000
Cost of delivering those places: $485 million
Cost of energy transmission fund: $20 billion
Cost of national reconstruction fund to finance projects that expand the country’s “industrial base”: $15 billion
Money to be put in an “investment pipeline” for transport infrastructure over the next decade: $120 billion
Homes and businesses that will get full-fibre NBN access: 1.5 million
This article was first published by Crikey.
