5 years ago
TREASURER’S ‘POLICY SETTINGS’ A RECIPE FOR SLOWING GROWTH
JIM CHALMERS MP
Josh Frydenberg’s latest finger-pointing foray is falling down around him as more and more people realise that telling business to invest more is not an economic plan.
Business investment has been very weak under the Liberals and that’s had alarming consequences for worsening productivity and slowing economic growth.
The Treasurer’s calls would have more credibility if:
Business investment has been very weak under the Liberals and that’s had alarming consequences for worsening productivity and slowing economic growth.
The Treasurer’s calls would have more credibility if:
- Productivity had not declined every quarter since he became Treasurer;
- The Liberals had not savaged investment in skills, training, and education;
- He had not supported and overseen billions of dollars cut from R&D tax incentives; and
- The Liberals had not undermined business investment with 16 different energy policies.
Business has a key role to play in becoming more productive and supporting Australia’s floundering economy but that is only part of the story not the whole story.
When Australians need and expect a plan from the Morrison Government to get the economy going again all they get instead is finger-pointing and blame-shifting.
This morning he said the Liberals had the ‘right policy settings’ but those policy settings have been a recipe for the slowest growth in a decade, stagnant wages, record household debt, high underemployment, and declining living standards.
With a record that bad no wonder we hear he’s now trawling through Labor’s tax and investment policies to see what he can plagiarise.
The Liberals’ lack of an economic plan is leaving Australia dangerously exposed to turbulence in the global economy.